bust

bust
\ \ There are two different words bust in English. The one meaning ‘break’ [18] is simply an alteration of burst. Bustsculpture of head and chest’ [17] comes via French buste from Italian bustoupper body’, of uncertain origin (Latin had the temptingly similar bustummonument on a tomb’, but this does not seem to fit in with the word’s primary sense ‘upper body’). In English, application of the word to the human chest probably developed in the 18th century (one of the earliest examples is from Byron’s Don Juan 1819: ‘There was an Irish lady, to whose bust I ne’er saw justice done’), although as late as the early 19th century it could still be used with reference to men’s chests, and had not become particularized to female breasts: ‘His naked bust would have furnished a model for a statuary’, Washington Irving, A tour on the prairies 1835.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Bust — Bust …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Bust — Saltar a navegación, búsqueda Bust Escudo …   Wikipedia Español

  • bust-up — ˈbust up noun [countable] 1. when a unit such as a company or department is broken into parts 2. JOURNALISM when people disagree strongly: • a boardroom bust up, when the chief executive walked out after six weeks in the job * * * bust up UK US… …   Financial and business terms

  • bust-up — n informal 1.) the end of a relationship bust up of ▪ the bust up of their marriage →bust up at ↑bust1 2.) BrE a very bad quarrel or fight ▪ Cathy and I had a real bust up yesterday …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • bust-up — bust ups 1) N COUNT A bust up is a serious quarrel, often resulting in the end of a relationship. [INFORMAL] She had had this bust up with her family. Syn: row 2) N COUNT A bust up is a fight. [BRIT, INFORMAL] ...a bust up which she says left her …   English dictionary

  • bust — [n1] chest of human bosom, breast, chest, front; concept 392 bust [n2] arrest for illegal action apprehension, arrest, capture, cop, detention, nab, pickup, pinch, raid, search, seizure; concepts 298,317 Ant. exoneration bust [v1] …   New thesaurus

  • bust — ust (b[u^]st), v. i. 1. To break or burst. [informal] [PJC] 2. (Card Playing) In blackjack, to draw a card that causes one s total to exceed twenty one. [PJC] 3. To go bankrupt. [PJC] {to go bust} to go bankrupt. {or bust} or collapse from the… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Bust — may refer to: * Bust (sculpture), a sculpture depicting a person s head and shoulders * Bust (magazine), a feminist pop culture magazine * An alternative term for an arrest. * An alternative term for human breasts. * A song by Outkast from… …   Wikipedia

  • bust — Ⅰ. bust [1] ► NOUN 1) a woman s breasts. 2) a sculpture of a person s head, shoulders, and chest. ORIGIN French buste, from Latin bustum tomb, sepulchral monument . Ⅱ. bust [2] informal …   English terms dictionary

  • bust — bust1 [bust] n. [Fr buste < It busto] 1. a piece of sculpture representing the head, shoulders, and upper chest of a human body 2. the human bosom; esp., the breasts of a woman SYN. BREAST bust2 [bust] Informal vt. [orig., dial. var. of …   English World dictionary

  • bust|ed — «BUHS tihd», adjective. 1. Slang. broken. 2. Informal. ruined; bankrupt. busted, combining form. having a bust: »Full busted = having a full bust …   Useful english dictionary

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