bankrupt

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
Jump to navigation Jump to search

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]

Adjective

[edit]

bankrupt (comparative more bankrupt, superlative most bankrupt)

  1. (finance) In a condition of bankruptcy; having been legally declared insolvent; unable to pay one's debts.
    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:impoverished
    a bankrupt merchant
  2. (figuratively) Destitute of, or wholly lacking something once possessed, or something one should possess.
    a morally bankrupt politician

Translations

[edit]

Verb

[edit]

bankrupt (third-person singular simple present bankrupts, present participle bankrupting, simple past and past participle bankrupted)

  1. (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]

Noun

[edit]

bankrupt (plural bankrupts)

  1. One who becomes unable to pay his or her debts; an insolvent person.
  2. (UK, law, obsolete) A trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors.

Translations

[edit]

Derived terms

[edit]

See also

[edit]

References

[edit]