Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also busted-arse, busted down) in fig. use, dead, finished.

1838		Dickens Oliver Twist (1966) 184: He had not touched a drop of anything for forty-two mortal long hard-working days; and that he ‘wished he might be busted if he warn’t as dry as a lime-backet’.
1848		‘Major Jones’ Sketches of Travel 11: All my plans is busted up.
1876		B. Harte Gabriel Conroy III 181: It was a mighty sharp move of Pete Dumphy’s bailin’ thet Gabe, right in the face of that there ‘dropped lead’ in his busted-up mine!
1882		Leeds Times 25 Mar. 6/5: I’m clean busted on that wheat.
1892		H. Lawson ‘The Bush Undertaker’ in Roderick (1972) 53: Brummy! by gosh! — busted up at last!
1894		M.H. Foote Coeur d’Alene 165: The poor boy’s busted.
1900		Marvel XIV 3 Sept. 358: ‘I want an apology from you,’ he said [...] ‘Then I’ll see you dog-bit and busted before I give it!’ cried Dan.
1911		Gem 4 Nov. 19: An’ I ses as it’s busted ’eavy!
1949		‘Hal Ellson’ Duke 127: The party’s all busted up.
1955		A.J. Liebling ‘The University of Eighth Avenuie’ in A Neutral Corner (1990) 29: A busted down colored middleweight [...] walked in.
1963		H.E. Bates Oh! To be in England (1985) 377: Finished. Busted. Thinking of turning it in.
1973		E. Bunker No Beast So Fierce 84: Fuck it. If they bust me, I’m busted.
1983		S. King Christine 344: He doesn’t know what’s going on. Poor busted-luck sonofawhore.
1989		M. Amis London Fields 296: A dead car half-stripped at the side of the street, shot, busted, annulled, abashed.
2007		L. Redhead Cherry Pie [ebook] ‘You are so busted’.
2018		C. Hammer Scrublands [ebook] ‘Byron, it’s Avery. We’re busted [...] Snouch [...] knows who you are, what you did’.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 279: ‘People thought it [i.e. a new refugee detention centre] would turn our busted-arse town around’.

2. (also bursted) broken; also fig. use, beaten up.

1845		W.T. Porter Big Bear of Arkansas (1847) 128: ‘What’s busted, Jem?’ ‘Hell has busted and no mistake! the ground is kivered with snow!’.
1866		Newberry Herald (SC) 15 Aug. n.p.: Now I’m a gone nutmeg, a busted what-do-you-call-it.
1868		Native Virginian (Orange Court House, VA) 15 May 1/5: ‘Does the stage ever get upset?’ ‘It got busted all to h-ll, yestiday’.
1877		Dodge City Times 16 June in Miller & Snell Why the West was Wild 21: The only injuries sustained by the loser [...] were two ears chewed off, one eye bursted.
1884		G.W. Bagby Old Virginia Gentleman (1910) 93: The ‘bustid’ condition of the bridge has made church-going by the Jackson’s mill route impossible.
1892		A.C. Gunter Miss Dividends 74: ‘The Cap looks as busted up as if he had lost on four aces,’ for he goes about in a broken kind of a way.
1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 134: The critter can’t eat or drink with a busted jaw.
1920		S. Lewis Main Street (1921) 14: We land in a rut of obstetrics and typhoid and busted legs.
1934		D.L. Sayers Nine Tailors (1984) 178: And there were so many teeth gone and busted from the corpse that we’ve not got much out of that.
1940		O. Strange Sudden Takes the Trail 116: He’s got a busted head, but that’ll mend.
1955		‘Blackie’ Audett Rap Sheet 33: Staring him right in the eye, is the patch on the busted tire of my old car.
1966		P. Willmott Adolescent Boys of East London (1969) 97: Had a fight in break with a boy called Stephen S. I got a busted mouth.
1978		R. Caron Go-Boy! 111: With relief I saw that none of my bones were busted.
1986		C. Hiaasen Tourist Season (1987) 256: The heater’s busted.
1995		C. Hiaasen Stormy Weather 243: For the first time in days, his busted-up knee didn’t hurt so much.
1997		C. Hiaasen Lucky You 19: He got up to turn on the TV. Nothing happened. ‘This busted or what?’.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 301: Fire crew cut me out. Ambulance crew take care my busted ribs.
2002		A. Duff Jake’s Long Shadow 223: He managed a smile from that busted-up face. It must have hurt, for he winced.
2024		C. Stella Joey Piss Pot 34: ‘[T]he kid is busted up pretty good [...] Broken this, broken that’.

3. exhausted.

1905		H. Green Actors’ Boarding House (1906) 46: Three of the cattle gents now snored noisily from the sawdust covered floor in the back room, drunk and busted.
1910		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley Says 92: Th’ Japs had gone a thousand miles [...] an’ were about busted.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 59: He gets back home, four in the morning, bushed and busted.
1979		Sounds 21 July n.p.: She woke up broke and busted in Wallsend [KH].

4. caught out, in a non-criminal context.

1903		J. Furphy Such is Life 17: I thought I’d ’a’ busted when the bloke at the well told me.
1968		in B. Jackson In the Life (1972) 316: I was busted (somebody recognised him) up there on it.
1994		Eble Campus Sl. Apr. 2: busted – caught doing something wrong.
1994		N. McCall Makes Me Wanna Holler (1995) 32: We were busted cold.

5. (US, also busted out) expelled, thrown out, esp. from an institutional job; reduced in rank.

1878		H.O. Flipper Colored Cadet at West Point 51: ‘Busted,’ ‘broken.’—These words apply only to cadet officers who are reduced to ranks.
1917		A.G. Empey Over the Top ‘Tommy’s Dict. of the Trenches’ 285: ‘Busted.’ Term applied when a non-commissioned officer is reduced by court-martial.
1951		S. Lewis World So Wide 239: You can’t see me busted like this.
1978		T. O’Brien Going After Cacciato (1980) 131: Then the MPs show up [...] Next morning I’m busted.
2001		Eble Campus Sl. Fall 4: faced – denied or refused [...] Also busted.

6. depressed, in pain.

1923		Edna Hicks ‘Hard Luck Blues’ 🎵 I’m simply busted, / And I’m blue, / ’Cause I’m so down and out.
1927		(con. 1912) H. Asbury Gangs of N.Y. 353: The poor kid’s all busted up over the way she treated you, Patsy.
1931		D. Runyon ‘The Lily of St. Pierre’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 142: Old Doctor Armand Dorval is going to be all busted up if he hears what really happens.
1938		D. Runyon ‘Very Honorable Guy’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 429: Doc Bodeeker seems all busted up by his feelings and starts to shed tears.
1957		H. Simmons Corner Boy 45: Son-of-a-bitch, Man, I’m busted.
1969		N. Cohn Awopbop. (1970) 118: It’s a cry of pure pain and sometimes it’s only a sigh. Either way, it would like to break your heart. So high and soft and busted.
1978		S. Longstreet Straw Boss (1979) 3497: She’s all busted up, too.
2001		N. Barlay Hooky Gear 12: Geezer lyin there all busted.

7. (also busted in) drunk.

1959		A. Sinclair Breaking of Bumbo (1961) 36: Bumbo drunk. Bumbo busted.
1980		Joe Sun ‘Bombed, Boozed and Busted’ 🎵 I get bombed, boozed and busted a-living on a honkytonk time.
1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Busted in (adj.) 1. Intoxicated; drunk. 2. Hung-over.

8. (UK teen/US black/campus) ugly, unattractive.

1997–2000		College Sl. Research Project (Cal. State Poly. Uni., Pomona) 🌐 Busted (adj.) Ugly looking.
2000		Ebonics Primer at www.dolemite.com 🌐 busted Definition: [...] 2. an ugly person; very offensive or unattractive to look at Example: That hoe Tammi, she a busted ass hoe!
2004		Eble Campus Sl. Apr.
2012		M. Lacher On the Bro’d 228: Some chick who was mad ugly [...] Who the fuck knows how he could stand banging a bitch that busted.
2016		Independent 5 Jan. 🌐 Supposedly ugly contemporaries are condemned as busted, finished, flames, hangin’, bruk, or just uggz.

9. (US campus) wrong.

2001

Eble Campus Sl. Fall 2: busted – Wrong.