Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. illegal, esp. of dice.

1956		I. Fleming Diamonds Are Forever (1958) 72: It is possible that there are bust-out gaffs sneaking in farmhouses on back roads.
1968		in B. Jackson In the Life (1972) 187: A ‘bust-out’ mob [...] You’re working with tops or bust-out craps.
1981		H. Gould Fort Apache, The Bronx 8: Why hit a bust out saloon where there was no real bread.

2. of a place or machine, e.g. a car, run-down.

1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 37: A whore was liable to grab a sucker through his pants and drag him by his tool into a bust-out hotel.
1981		E. Bunker Little Boy Blue (1995) 214: We’re in this godddam bust-out hotel with two kids.
1995		J. Stahl Permanent Midnight 163: Big G’s bust-out ’76 Bonneville, a rusted baby blue barge.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 2: I did my best for a year or so in a bust-out gym in Ocean Park, California.

3. (US, also busted out) of a person, impoverished; second-rate.

1973		R. Daley Target Blue 192: [A] New Jersey Mafia chief [...] described Colombo as a ‘bust-out guy all his life,’ in a telephone conversation wiretapped by the FBI. A bust-out guy [...] was a petty gambler.
1979		‘Iceberg Slim’ Airtight Willie and Me 131: The sour whiskey gusts from the four busted-out hardfaces.
1990		S. Morgan Homeboy 3: That afternoon was the first time in her bustout life.
2000		F.X. Toole Rope Burns 165: What is now Chinatown is where the bust-out Irish working the railroads first lived.