trust busting
- noun
- /trʌst ˈbʌstɪŋ/
- Archaic
- Baruch reported to major firms that they need no longer fear New Deal trust-busting.
Now, some have said he's kind of pro the FTC and some of the trust busting they've been doing.
- Now, some have said he's kind of pro the FTC and some of the trust busting they've been doing.
- He, you know, faces down like massive corporate interests in the trust busting stuff.
Examples
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The new legislation focused on trust busting to promote fair competition in the marketplace.
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We see three basic strategies: block grants, vouchers, and trust busting.
Academic text (1998) -
Anti-trust laws and trust-busting were needed.
Blog text (4) -
And Democrats are ceding the populist field of trust-busting to Republicans.
Blog text (23) -
Vigorous trust-busting undeniably smacks of Big Government.
Academic text (1998) -
The government's trust busting efforts aimed to dismantle large monopolies that stifled competition.
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During the early 20th century, trust busting became a critical part of U.S. policy to regulate powerful corporations.
Antonyms
Control of a market by one company that stops other companies from competing
How Strict
- Archaic
- Specialized
- Formal
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is transparently built from 'trust' (a corporate grouping) + 'busting' (the act of breaking up), so a learner who knows both words can readily infer it refers to breaking up trusts/monopolies. The verbal noun formation is a standard composition pattern (action + target) and, despite 'bust' being extended from physical breaking to organizational breakup, the meaning is directly predictable.
Etymology
Trust busting comes from the idea of a trust, a very large company that 'controls a market', and busting, meaning to 'break' it up. Governments in the early 1900s used laws to 'bust' these trusts and create more competition, so the phrase means 'government action to break up monopolies'.