Meaning & use
drug bust
Last updated
Meaning
nouncountableinformal
a police operation in which people are caught with illegal drugs or arrested for selling them
Grammar: Countable: a drug bust, two drug busts. Often used with 'make' or 'carry out'.
Patterns
- a drug bust
- make a drug bust
- carry out a drug bust
The police made a huge drug bust at the warehouse last night.
Three men were arrested in a drug bust on the highway.
The drug bust led to the discovery of a large supply of illegal pills.
Word forms
| plural | drug busts |
|---|
Common combinations
- make a drug bust
- The officers made a drug bust after a long investigation.
- a major drug bust
- The city announced a major drug bust involving several suspects.
- a drug bust operation
- The drug bust operation took months to plan.
- following a drug bust
- Several people were questioned following a drug bust downtown.
Synonyms and how they differ
- drug raid
- Very similar, but 'raid' often suggests a surprise attack on a place; 'drug bust' focuses on the arrest and seizure.
- drug arrest
- Focuses on the arrest of a person; 'drug bust' usually refers to the whole police operation.
Word family
Commonly confused: drug bust or drugstore?
drug bust vs drugstore
A shop where you buy medicine and other goods. Not related to police operations.
Practice
The police ______ a drug bust at the abandoned building yesterday.
Choose one answer.
The correct verb is 'make a drug bust'. 'Did', 'took', and 'gave' do not collocate naturally with 'drug bust' in this context.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “drug bust”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.