bust, adj. — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

bust adj.

also busted, busted up

1. bankrupt, subject to financial collapse.

1829		R.C. Sands Writings II 153: For the Aigle bank was busted, and the Cataract of Freedom stopped [DAE].
1842		Bristol Mirror 1 Oct. 6/4: The State Bank — busted all to pieces, and hang me if I didn’t lose thirty per cent.
1868		‘Richard the Third’ in Rootle-Tum Songster 49: De bank am bust – I isn’t got a cent.
1876		St Louis Globe-Democrat 19 Jan. n.p.: He is told by his equally ‘busted’ companions to ‘stand him up,’ ‘give him the slip,’ ‘put up your educated forefinger at him’.
1883		S. Bourke & Mornington Jrnl (Richmond, Vic.) 24 Jan. 1s/1: I’m busted [...] case of clean smash.
1884		J. Harrison ‘Negro English’ in Anglia VII 263: To be bustid up = to be bankrupt, to fail.
1885		S. Thompson Humbler Poets 268: The proud aristocratic folks, who sot in fortune’s door, / Who thought they ’d never come to want, are busted up an’ poor .
1891		Sporting Times Feb. 1/1: ‘I am as near busted as makes no difference’.
1892		H. Lawson ‘Jones’s Alley’ in Roderick (1972) 37: The landlord had lost all his money in a bust financial institution.
1898		F. Dumont Dumont’s Joke Book 29: mid.: What became of your newspaper? end.: Busted up.
1903		Rosebud Co. News (Forsyth, MT) 4 June 5/3: The wife complains of ills, and it keeps the husband ‘busted’ buying dope and drugs and pills.
1910		Investigation of the Department of the Interior 2130: It is a busted-up company. mr brandeis: You mean to say it has gone out of existence or that it is bankrupt? mr birch: It is bankrupt.
1914		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 11 Feb. 3/2: So when a man are busted, / Squashed in stern reality, / And he ain’t a thrumbo on him.
1922		H.L. Wilson Merton of the Movies 194: He looked like the juvenile lead of a busted road show.
1938		X. Herbert Capricornia (1939) 536: You’re pretty well bust yourselves.
1940		S. Lister Mistral Hotel (1951) 104: If the lid blows off Danzig the hotel will be empty within twenty-four hours and we shall be bust.
1959		‘Hal Ellson’ Jailbait Street (1963) 52: ‘Hey, what about some pot? It’s the best.’ ‘I’m busted’.
1967		H.S. Thompson letter 5 Jan. in Proud Highway (1997) 603: The handlers get rich while the animals either get busted or screwed to the floor with bad contracts.
1975		Sun. Times Mag. 14 Sept. 67: Put ’em on Dartmoor to farm and they’d be bust in two years.
1987		R. Campbell Alice in La-La Land (1999) 125: Plastics closed down all but a few [factories] in the seventies, but Daddy was bust before that, so it wasn’t much to worry about.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 45: Dr and Mrs Bland arrived back in Sydney Cove [...] flat busted and with the doc swearing an anything by Hippocratic oath never to outlay on a chaffburner again .
2011		J. Mabus ‘Sally Gal’ 🎵 Busted flat — no crime in that.

2. broken.

1857		Dickens Little Dorrit (1967) 303: I would wish to take the liberty to ask how it’s [i.e. the heart] to be made good to his parents when bust?
1916		J. Buchan Greenmantle (1930) 311: Her game’s mighty near bust, but it’s still got a chance.
1920		F. Packard White Moll 67: ‘Where’s the lamp?’ ‘It’s over dere on de floor, bust to pieces,’ mumbled Rhoda Gray.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘Knight’s Return’ in Chisholm (1951) 85: But ’ere’s me lip swole up an’ one eye black / An’ all me map in gen’ril bunged an’ bust.
1951		A. Buckeridge Jennings Follows a Clue (1967) 18: ‘It’s bust,’ he announced.
1968		P. Terson Apprentices (1970) I iii: Why didn’t somebody say he had spectacles on? Are they bust, son?

3. (also bustereeno) impoverished, out of funds.

1874		‘A.P.’ [Arthur Pember] Mysteries and Miseries 339: ‘Fact; the nut broke the bill at Newark; I saw him; he ain’t drunk, and so can’t be bust yet’.
1878		F.H. Hart Sazerac Lying Club 59: I was busted flatter’n a cold slap-jack.
1920		H.G. Wiley Wildcat 14: Wartimes an’ folks movin’ away has me about bust now.
1924		C.J. Dennis ‘Nocturne’ in Rose of Spadgers 53: Dead keen to splash around ’is surplis wealth / On rapid livin’ till ’e’s bust an’ broke.
1938		G. Kersh Night and the City 28: I offer you half a quid [...] You’re bust and you won’t take it.
1950		‘Hal Ellson’ Tomboy (1952) 96: Flat bust [...] I don’t feel no good without money.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 184: ‘I’m busted,’ he said dejectedly.
1970		D. Jenkins Dogged Victims 58: He once arrived [...] with the town so crowded—and himself so busted—that he joyfully bunked in the city jail.
1985–6		J. Stahl ‘Finnegan’s Waikiki’ in Love Without (2007) 139: I’m broke. Bustereeno.

In phrases

go bust (v.) (also go busted)

1. of an individual firm or company, to lose one’s money, to become bankrupt.

1890		Music Hall & Theatre Rev. 1 Nov. 6/2: The bank has gone ‘bust’.
1908		‘O. Henry’ ‘Clarion Call’ in Voice of the City (1915) 192: Here is where I go ‘busted’.
1918		E. Pound letter 12 Dec. in Read Letters to James Joyce (1968) 147: The only thing is that these women in New York may go bust, and be unable to print the end of the novel.
1921		D.L. Sayers Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1977) 141: Well, it’s all gone bust – but it was a darn’ good stunt while it lasted.
1935		(con. 1920s) J.T. Farrell Judgement Day in Studs Lonigan (1936) 558: It’s goddamn tough when a poor man saves a little money [...] and then the bank goes bust.
1944		J. Cary Horse’s Mouth (1948) 293: The Rankens went bust for the third or fouth time.
1958		A. Sillitoe Sat. Night and Sun. Morning 5: The club went bust.
1961		V.S. Naipaul House For Mr Biswas 159: The shop gone bust yet?
1982		J. Sullivan ‘It Never Rains’ Only Fools and Horses [TV script] He’ll go bust!
1999		Indep. 9 Oct. 11: A low-cost rival went bust.
1999		Guardian Guide 26 June–2 July 5: Hamper denied dishonesty but promptly went bust leaving creditors whistling for cash.
2000		Indep. Rev. 20 Mar. 12: I went to work for a Wang dealership that went bust.

2. (US) to renege on a debt.

2001

C. Stella Eddie’s World 2: I was collecting for Joe Sharp, some guy went bust on him a few weeks earlier. Small change, four or five hundred.