Past tense of bust
regular verb
The past tense of bust is busted or bust. The past participle is also busted or bust.
Forms of bust
| Base form (V1) | bust /bʌst/ |
|---|---|
| Past tense (V2) | busted /ˈbʌs.tɪd/ bust /bʌst/ |
| Past participle (V3) | busted /ˈbʌs.tɪd/ bust /bʌst/ |
| Present participle | busting /ˈbʌstɪŋ/ |
| Third person singular | busts /bʌsts/ |
Busted in a sentence
- I busted my cooker while trying to fix it.
- Aaron got busted by the feds for leaking confidential government documents on Reddit.
- I saw you take that cookie from the cookie jar! You're busted!From the entry busted
- I thought I'd draw another spade, but I ended up with a busted flush.From the entry busted flush
- I'd like to help you, but I'm busted.From the entry busted
Meaning of bust
- verb To break.
- verb To arrest (someone or a group of people) for a crime.
- verb To catch (someone) in the act of doing something wrong, socially and morally inappropriate, or illegal, especially when being done in a sneaky or secretive state.
Questions about the past tense of bust
- What is the past tense of bust?
- The past tense of bust is busted or bust.
- What is the past participle of bust?
- The past participle of bust is busted or bust.
- Is bust a regular or irregular verb?
- Bust is a regular verb: its past tense adds -ed.
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: bust (page history and authors) and the entries of its forms. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws left out forms marked obsolete, archaic, rare or dialectal and added the examples. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this page: “Past tense of bust.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/past-tense/bust. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.