bankrupt
Americannoun
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Law. a person who upon their own petition or that of their creditors is adjudged insolvent by a court and whose property is administered for and divided among their creditors under a bankruptcy law.
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any insolvent debtor; a person unable to satisfy any just claims made upon them.
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a person who is lacking in a particular thing or quality.
a moral bankrupt.
adjective
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Law. subject to or under legal process because of insolvency; insolvent.
- Synonyms:
- impoverished, destitute
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at the end of one's resources; lacking (usually followed by of orin ).
bankrupt of compassion;
bankrupt in good manners.
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related to the act or process of being adjudged insolvent by a court and having one's property andministered for and divided among one's creditors.
verb (used with object)
noun
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a person adjudged insolvent by a court, his or her property being transferred to a trustee and administered for the benefit of his creditors
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any person unable to discharge all his or her debts
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a person whose resources in a certain field are exhausted or nonexistent
a spiritual bankrupt
adjective
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adjudged insolvent
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financially ruined
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depleted in resources or having completely failed
spiritually bankrupt
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(foll by of) lacking
bankrupt of intelligence
verb
Other Word Forms
- pseudobankrupt adjective
- quasi-bankrupt adjective
Etymology
Origin of bankrupt
First recorded in 1525–35; from Medieval Latin banca rupta “bank broken”; replacing adaptations of Italian banca rota and French banqueroute in same sense
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
His predecessor, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, had left the nation bankrupt and humiliated, following an eight-year war with neighboring Iraq, one of the deadliest global conflicts of the past century.
The prospect of tariff refunds is the latest opportunity in the world of claims trading, where investors scoop up rights tied to everything from tax refunds to bankrupt companies.
The Kenyan clean cookstove project developer Koko Networks went bankrupt at the end of January, in part because it failed to negotiate a letter of authorization with the government.
It was hugely successful, but we had a flood nine months after we opened, which bankrupted us, theoretically bankrupt, but we were able to climb out.
First Brands Group has been unable to find financing or a buyer to continue most of its companywide operations, the bankrupt auto-parts supplier said as it laid off employees in its aftermarket businesses Monday.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
