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Glite Dictionary
🍔 A huge meal 😂 A hilarious joke
gut buster

gut buster

6.7
A very large filling meal that is hard to finish
  • noun
  • /ɡʌt ˈbʌstər/
  • Informal
translation icon : comida abundante
  • That burger was a real gut buster; I was full after just half of it.

Examples

  • The restaurant is famous for its breakfast gut buster that includes six eggs and a pound of bacon.

  • I can't finish this gut buster pizza.

  • He ordered a gut buster sandwich that barely fit on the plate.

  • This burger is a real gut buster!

  • The restaurant is famous for its breakfast gut buster that includes six eggs and a pound of bacon.

  • He ordered a gut buster sandwich that barely fit on the plate.

  • That burger was a real gut buster; I was full after just half of it.

Antonyms

snack food
11 1.0

A small light food you eat between meals, like chips or fruit

light appetizer
3.2

A small not heavy dish served before the main meal to make you want to eat

How Filling

gut buster
  • Informal
6.7
heavy meal
1 1.9
meal
∞ 1.0
snack
471 1.0

Surface Forms

gut buster singular
gut busters plural

Morphology

gut + buster

The expression combines literal words 'gut' (intestine) and 'buster' (thing that breaks) but its meaning ('something so funny it makes you laugh uncontrollably') rests on a metaphorical extension (compare 'bust your gut'/'laugh your guts out') rather than straightforward composition. A B1 learner who knows the constituents might sense intensity from 'buster' but would not reliably infer the laughter sense without prior exposure, so the phrase is partially but not fully transparent.

Etymology

Gut buster may come from the image of a meal so big it feels like it will burst your gut, because buster suggests something that breaks or bursts. So, it now means 'a very large and filling meal'.