to bust someone's chops
14
9.0
- idiom
- /bʌst ˈsʌmˌwʌnz tʃɑps/
- Informal
- At the office, we often bust each other's chops to lighten the mood.
Examples
-
You're always busting her chops.
-
Whenever I tell a bad joke, my brother is quick to bust my chops about it.
-
Wife ever bust your chops about moving up?
-
Sorry to bust your chops.
-
Hey now, I'm not trying to bust your chops, Professor.
-
I'm just busting your chops.
-
Now look you stay close to the trailer and don't bust Bobby's chops.
-
Dad, you haven't been busting Ted's chops, have you?
-
Nobody's busting your chops.
-
My friends love to bust my chops whenever I miss a goal during soccer practice.
Synonyms
228
1.9
To make fun of someone in a way that annoys them
92
3.9
Make someone feel bad by criticizing or teasing them
86
5.8
To mock someone again and again to make them angry or upset
65
2.6
To keep criticizing or telling someone to do things in an annoying way
30
3.9
To make jokes about someone to make them look silly
26
3.4
To make jokes about someone, sometimes to be playful and sometimes to be unkind
20
7.2
To tease someone repeatedly, either playfully or cruelly
16
7.7
To annoy someone by teasing them repeatedly
13
8.7
Tease someone to make them react
12
6.4
To make a short teasing or critical comment about someone
8
8.1
To tease someone in a playful way
7
9.3
To tease or criticize someone in a friendly way
6
9.1
To tease someone in a playful or annoying way
5
3.8
To tease someone in a friendly, joking way
5
8.0
To annoy someone with small, repeated complaints
3
7.5
To laugh at someone and say unkind things about them
2
9.8
To tease someone again and again with small mean remarks
1
9.1
To tease someone by making jokes about them in a friendly way
1
8.2
To tease someone with repeated mean or mocking remarks
1
9.9
To tease someone in a friendly, playful way
1
8.7
To tease or nag someone in a way that annoys them
Antonyms
How Teasing
- Offensive
258
3.2
- Informal
201
3.5
228
1.9
- Informal
14
9.0
- Informal
5
3.8
530
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
The sense 'to tease, nag, or criticize' cannot be predicted from the literal parts: 'bust' (to break), 'someone's' (possessive) and 'chops' (mouth/jaws) do not transparently compose that meaning. This is an idiomatic, slangy American expression whose figurative sense is not cross-linguistically obvious, so a B1 learner who knows the words would likely not infer the meaning.
Etymology
The idiom bust someone's chops likely comes from chops, a word for the mouth or jaw. One popular story says to bust someone's jaws meant to hit them, and later the phrase was used for attacking someone with words instead of fists. So, today bust someone's chops means 'to tease, nag, or criticize'.