bankrupt
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English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Partial calque of Italian bancarotta, from banca (“bench, bank”) + rotta (“broken, rupted”), which refers to an out-of-business bank, having its bench physically broken, signifying that the working moneylender was insolvent.
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbæŋ.kɹəpt/, /ˈbæŋ.kɹʌpt/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈbæŋk.ɹəpt/, /ˈbæŋk.ɹʌpt/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -æŋkɹəpt, -æŋkɹʌpt
- Hyphenation: bank‧rupt
Adjective
[edit]bankrupt (comparative more bankrupt, superlative most bankrupt)
- (finance) In a condition of bankruptcy; having been legally declared insolvent; unable to pay one's debts.
- Synonyms: see Thesaurus:impoverished
- a bankrupt merchant
- 1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, page 141:
- "How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked. "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly."
- (figuratively) Destitute of, or wholly lacking something once possessed, or something one should possess.
- a morally bankrupt politician
- 1775 January 17 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The Rivals, a Comedy. […], London: […] John Wilkie, […], published 1775, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 80:
- O Julia! I am bankrupt in gratitude! but the time is ſo preſſing, it calls on you for ſo haſty a reſolution.
Translations
[edit]having been legally declared insolvent
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Verb
[edit]bankrupt (third-person singular simple present bankrupts, present participle bankrupting, simple past and past participle bankrupted)
- (transitive) To force into bankruptcy.
- 1953 August, David R. Webb, “By Rail to Bournemouth”, in Railway Magazine, page 553:
- The cost of the Mendip line had, however, bankrupted the S.D.R. [Somerset & Dorset Railway], and it was leased to the two larger companies for 999 years in 1875, and named the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway.
Translations
[edit]force into bankruptcy
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Noun
[edit]bankrupt (plural bankrupts)
- One who becomes unable to pay his or her debts; an insolvent person.
- (UK, law, obsolete) A trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors.
Translations
[edit]insolvent person
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Derived terms
[edit]See also
[edit]References
[edit]- Michael Quinion (2004) “Bankrupt”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.
- “bankrupt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms calqued from Italian
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- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹəpt
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹəpt/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹʌpt
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹʌpt/2 syllables
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