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Glite Dictionary
drug bust

drug bust

14 3.1
An occasion when police take illegal drugs and arrest people
  • noun
  • /drʌg bʌst/
  • NSFW
translation icon : redada antidroga
  • We worked together on a drug bust in San Pedro that made the brass look real good.
  • a big drug bust
  • arrested in a drug bust
  • a huge drug bust

And, you know, we had this this marijuana drug bust, which, you know, we shouldn't even be bothering with that anyway.

Examples

  • The police celebrated a significant drug bust that removed hundreds of illegal substances from the streets.

  • We're talking about potentially the biggest drug bust in the history of this state.

    In Too Deep (1999)

  • This is a drug bust.

    Last Action Hero (1993)

  • Cops make a drug bust.

    Blog text (20)

  • It would be the biggest drug bust Cologne has ever seen.

    Collide (2016)

  • The Salvatore Maroni case was the biggest drug bust in city history.

    The Batman (2022)

  • At 8:15 p.m., officers made a drug bust on Florence Ave.

    Blog text (17)

  • Curry and Rivas' relationship also included a drug bust in which Rivas pointed out a man who was found with cocaine on his person.

    Blog text (27)

  • As soon as a suspect is arrested in a drug bust, his or her phone is secured so a friend can't remotely wipe out incriminating details.

    Blog text (6)

  • Last week, authorities announced one of the largest drug busts in the city's history, leading to multiple arrests.

Synonyms

drugs bust
vsdrug bust
  • NSFW
3.7

An event when police take illegal drugs and arrest people

is written as the singular form rather than the plural
buy-and-bust operation
vsdrug bust
  • NSFW
7.6

A police action in which officers pretend to buy illegal drugs to arrest sellers

is a broader seizure event not limited to undercover buy tactics

How Extensive

operation
811 3.2
drug bust
  • NSFW
14 3.1
to raid
66 4.1
seizure
  • Formal
71 6.1

Surface Forms

drug bust singular
drug busts plural

Morphology

drug + bust

The noun is transparently built from 'bust' (a police raid/arrest) modified by 'drug', so the meaning 'a police operation to seize illegal drugs' is directly derivable from the constituents and standard English compounding patterns. This compositional structure is common cross-linguistically, so a B1 learner who knows both words should readily infer the MWE's meaning.

Etymology

The phrase drug bust may come from the slang bust, which means a sudden police action to 'break' into a place or to arrest people. Imagine officers 'busting' into a building and taking illegal drugs, and that's why the phrase means a police raid where drugs are taken and people are arrested.