Noun

(en noun)

Someone who or something that bursts, breaks, or destroys a specified thing.

* 1614 , S. Jerome, Moses his Sight of Canaan , 147:

Now death, I pray thee what is it, but a buster of bonds; a destruction of toyle?

* 2005 , J. Madhavan, Sita & Forest Bandits , 122:

Rothlin was described... by the papers as the buster of the bandit ring.

# .

#* 1940 September 2, Life , 29/1:

German ‘balloon busters ’ attack the Dover barrage.

#* 1958 February 10, Life , 70:

Our main purpose in further experimentation with nuclear bombs is not... to make city-busters more horrible.

Someone who or something that 'breaks', tames, or overpowers a specified person or thing.

# A bronco-buster.

#* 1891 July, Harper's Magazine , 208/2

The buster must be careful to keep well away from sheds and timber.

# (Forming compounds denoting an agent or agency tasked with reducing or eliminating the first element).

#* 1920 , F. A. McKenzie, ‘Pussyfoot’ Johnson , v. 83:

Men nicknamed him the ‘Booze Buster ’, and cartoonists loved to picture him, revolver in hand,... fighting the demon rum.

#* 1974''' July 4, ''New Scientist , 65/2:

The professional fraud-busters [of the art world].

#* 1984 November 18, N.Y. Times , iv. 24/2:

New York City traffic agents have become Gridlock Busters' and cigarette foes are ' smokebusters .

Someone]] or something remarkable, especially for being loud, large, [[etc..

* 1833 April, Parthenon , 293:

‘I had to clean this old roarer,’ continued the ‘editor’... as he wiped the barrel of his pistol. ‘She's a buster , I tell you.’

* 2004 November 20, South Wales Echo , 9:

What a buster of a lunch it turned out to be.

# : guy, dude, fella, mack, buddy, loser. (Originally as 'old buster' .)

#* 1838 March 24, New Yorker , 4/1:

That's generous, old buster .

#* 1919 , , ''(My Man Jeeves), 79:

An extremely wealthy old buster .

#* 2001 , S. MacKay, Fall Guy , ix. 113:

‘Careful, buster ,’ she said. ‘I've got a knife in my hand.’

A loaf of bread.

* 1835 September 16, Morning Post , 4/2:

Three penny busters , and a whole kit-full of winegar and mustard.

* 1904 June 8, Journal of the Department of Labour (New Zealand), 536:

An 8 loaf of brown bread... goes by the name of ‘buster ’, I suppose on account of the way they blow you out.

A drinking spree, a binge.

* 1848 , John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms :

They were on a buster , and were taken up by the police.

* 1922 , (James Joyce), , 405:

All off for a buster , armstrong, hollering down the street.

a southerly buster.

* 1848 , John Russell Bartlett, Dictionary of Americanisms

‘This is a buster ,’ i.e. a powerful or heavy wind.

* 1886 , Frank Cowan, Australia , 14:

The Buster and Brickfielder: austral red-dust blizzard and red-hot Simoom.

* 1991 , J. Moore, By Way of Wind , 121:

When the barometer drops rapidly... watch out for a strong sou'wester. A buster can be on you in a flash.

a staged fall, a pratfall.

* 1874 April, Baily's Monthly Magazine , 114:

Dainty... came down ‘a buster ’ at the last hurdle, and Scots Grey cantered in by himself.

A molting crab.

*1855 October 18, Henry A. Wise, letter in J.P. Hambleton's Biographical Sketch of Henry A. Wise (1856), 448:

In that state he is called a ‘Buster ’, bursting his shell.

* 2002 January 6, N.Y. Times , v. 4/6:

Restaurant August... serves contemporary French cuisine prepared with Louisiana ingredients like buster crabs, shrimp and oysters.

Noun

(en noun)

A group or bunch of several discrete items that are close to each other.

a cluster of islands

* Spenser

Her deeds were like great clusters of ripe grapes, / Which load the bunches of the fruitful vine.

*{{quote-book, year=1907, author=

, chapter=7, title= The Dust of Conflict , passage=Then there was no more cover, for they straggled out, not in ranks but clusters , from among orange trees and tall, flowering shrubs

*{{quote-news, year=2011, date=December 29, author=Keith Jackson, work=Daily Record

, title= SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0 , passage=Charlie Mulgrew’s delicious deadball delivery was attacked by a cluster of green and white shirts at McGregor’s back post but Ledley got up higher and with more purpose than anyone else to thump a header home from five yards.}}

*{{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= William E. Conner

, title= An Acoustic Arms Race , volume=101, issue=3, page=206-7, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Earless ghost swift moths become “invisible” to echolocating bats by forming mating clusters close (less than half a meter) above vegetation and effectively blending into the clutter of echoes that the bat receives from the leaves and stems around them.}}

A number of individuals grouped together or collected in one place; a crowd; a mob.

* Milton

As bees / Pour forth their populous youth about the hive / In clusters .

* Shakespeare

We loved him; but, like beasts / And cowardly nobles, gave way unto your clusters , / Who did hoot him out o' the city.

(astronomy) A group of galaxies or stars that appear near each other.

(music) A secundal chord of three or more notes.

(phonetics) A group of consonants.

(computing) A group of computers that work together.

(computing) A logical data storage unit containing one or more physical sectors (see block).

(statistics) A significant subset within a population.

(military) Set of bombs or mines.

(army) A small metal design that indicates that a medal has been awarded to the same person before.

An ensemble of bound atoms or molecules, intermediate in size between a molecule and a bulk solid.