Meanings
plural trustbusters
- USA person or entity responsible for breaking up trusts or monopolies.
Britain’s chief trustbuster is sitting in a meeting room at the CMA’s head office after a whirlwind morning of broadcast interviews about its latest intervention, this time in the market for baby milk formula.
2025 February 18, John Collingridge, “‘We must avoid a chilling effect’: the CMA chief on the UK’s pro-growth shift”, in Katharine Viner, editor, The Guardian (Business section), London: Guardian News & Media, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 20 Feb 20251 more example
America’s top trustbusters mean to make their policing presence felt. Lawyers, bankers and financiers now “recognise that there are cops on the beat…that we’re vigorously looking to protect the American public from illegal mergers,” says Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), which enforces consumer-protection and competition laws.
2023 June 21, “Why Joe Biden’s trustbusters have fallen short of their ambitions”, in The Economist, →ISSN
Origin
From trust + buster. Initially used with reference to the antitrust policies of Theodore Roosevelt.
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
trustbuster. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trustbuster
“trustbuster.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trustbuster. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “trustbuster,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/trustbuster.
Source: trustbuster on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.