mutton busting
mutton busting noun: a form of entertainment, akin to bull riding, where young children compete to hold onto the back of sheep for as long as possible.
Noun
mutton busting (uncountable)
- A form of entertainment, akin to bull riding, where young children compete to hold onto the back of sheep for as long as possible.
- See all these sheep over there? All those kids are gonna be racing. […] What's this called again? Mutton busting. Mutton busting?[2011, Wes Cunningham, Brandon Dickerson, Thomas Ward, directed by Brandon Dickerson, Sironia (motion picture)
- What is mutton busting? […] Apparently, in certain parts of the country it's perfectly acceptable to take your 2- to 6-year-old child, strap a helmet on their tiny, fragile, still-growing head and throw them on the back of a frantic sheep in front of a cheering audience. It's a very, very real...[2012, “Top Music News”, in Alltop
Origin of mutton busting
From mutton (“sheep”) + busting (“turning an animal into a beast of burden”), modeled on the phrase bronco busting.
Questions about mutton busting
- What does mutton busting mean?
- Mutton busting means a form of entertainment, akin to bull riding, where young children compete to hold onto the back of sheep for as long as possible.
- What part of speech is mutton busting?
- Mutton busting is a noun.
Words near mutton busting in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: mutton busting (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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Cite this entry: “mutton busting.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/mutton_busting. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.