Word.ws English Dictionary

bust someone's balls

bust someone's balls verb: to give someone a hard time, whether by playfully teasing or sincerely harassing them.

Verb

bust someone's balls (third-person singular simple present busts someone's balls, present participle busting someone's balls, simple past and past participle busted someone's balls)

  1. (slang, vulgar) To give someone a hard time, whether by playfully teasing or sincerely harassing them.
    • Henry: All day long I thought the guys in the helicopter were just local cops busting my balls over Lufthansa. But they turned out to be narcs.1990, Goodfellas

Synonyms of bust someone's balls

Forms of bust someone's balls

third-person singular presentbusts someone's balls
present participlebusting someone's balls
past participlebusted someone's balls
pastbusted someone's balls

Questions about bust someone's balls

What does bust someone's balls mean?
Bust someone's balls means to give someone a hard time, whether by playfully teasing or sincerely harassing them.
What part of speech is bust someone's balls?
Bust someone's balls is a verb.
What is the past tense of bust someone's balls?
The past tense of bust someone's balls is busted someone's balls.

Words near bust someone's balls in the dictionary

  1. bust one's hump
  2. bust one's neck
  3. bust out
  4. bust someone's agates
  5. bust someone's ass
  6. bust someone's balls
  7. bust the dust
  8. bust up
  9. bust-down
  10. bust-downs
  11. bust-out

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bust someone's balls (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-bust someone's balls.ogg.

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