bust

Pronunciation: /bʌst/

Reading level: hard

Estimated CEFR level: B2 — Upper-Intermediate

Estimated from word frequency; not an official CEFR classification.

Definition

  1. noun a complete failure
  2. noun the chest of a woman
  3. noun a sculpture of the head and shoulders of a person

Etymology

From Middle English busten, a variant of bursten, bresten (“to burst”). Compare Low German basten, a variant of barsten (“to burst”). Cognate with burst and bost.

In classic literature

Synonyms

flop, fizzle

Semantic network

Broader (hypernyms)
failure
Narrower (hyponyms)
turkey

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