bankrupt

American  

[bangk-ruhpt, -ruhpt] / ˈbæŋk rʌpt, -rəpt /

noun

• bankrupts
  plural

1. 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.

2. any insolvent debtor; a person unable to satisfy any just claims made upon them.

3. a person who is lacking in a particular thing or quality.

   a moral bankrupt.

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adjective

1. Law. subject to or under legal process because of insolvency; insolvent.

   Synonyms:

   impoverished, destitute

2. at the end of one's resources; lacking (usually followed by of orin ).

   bankrupt of compassion;

   bankrupt in good manners.

3. 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)

• bankrupts,
  present (3rd person singular)
• bankrupted,
  past participle,  past
• bankrupting
  present participle

1. to make insolvent.

   His embezzlement bankrupted the company.

bankrupt British  

/ ˈbæŋkrʌpt, -rəpt /

noun

1. a person adjudged insolvent by a court, his or her property being transferred to a trustee and administered for the benefit of his creditors

2. any person unable to discharge all his or her debts

3. a person whose resources in a certain field are exhausted or nonexistent

   a spiritual bankrupt

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adjective

1. adjudged insolvent

2. financially ruined

3. depleted in resources or having completely failed

   spiritually bankrupt

4. (foll by of) lacking

   bankrupt of intelligence

verb

1. (tr) to make bankrupt

Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• pseudobankrupt
  adjective
• quasi-bankrupt
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• bankrupts
  plural

Participles

• bankrupting
  present
• bankrupted
  past

Conjugated Forms

Present

• bankrupt
  simple
• bankrupts
  simple
• have bankrupted
  perfect
• has bankrupted
  perfect
• am bankrupting
  progressive
• are bankrupting
  progressive
• is bankrupting
  progressive
• have been bankrupting
  perfect progressive
• has been bankrupting
  perfect progressive

Past

• bankrupted
  simple
• had bankrupted
  perfect
• was bankrupting
  progressive
• were bankrupting
  progressive
• had been bankrupting
  perfect progressive

Future

• will bankrupt
  simple
• will have bankrupted
  perfect
• will be bankrupting
  progressive
• will have been bankrupting
  perfect progressive

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

Explanation

You might not have any money in your pocket, but it doesn’t necessarily mean you are bankrupt. It takes a legal proceeding for the courts to declare a person bankrupt — or officially unable to pay his debts. Despite the word bank in bankrupt, the word can be used to describe an entity that is short of something other than money. A bankrupt nation might not have the natural resources for its people to produce goods. A nearby country that could easily help but chooses not to may be considered morally bankrupt because of its lack of compassion. Or, maybe there is more to the story. That nation might fear that helping another will bankrupt its own shaky economy. (That is how bankrupt can be used as a verb.)

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

bankrupt bankrupts bankrupted bankrupting

So instead of letting my expensive tastes bankrupt my family, I’m planning the wedding of my dreams on a budget.

From MarketWatch ● Oct. 13, 2026

He landed a role in sales at a small tech company—only to see the firm go bankrupt.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026

A financial crisis in Europe led investors to dump American railway bonds, and Jay Cooke and Co. went bankrupt, a shock to Wall Street on the scale of JPMorgan failing today.

From MarketWatch ● Sep. 29, 2026

There were the frozen steaks, the fraudulent university, the ill-fated airline shuttle, the bankrupt Atlantic City casinos and a short-lived dating show spun off from “The Apprentice” that was canceled after two seasons.

From Salon ● Sep. 24, 2026

I was a restaurant for a while, but went bankrupt.

From "Please Ignore Vera Dietz" by A.S. King

"If the company fails… it will fail because of an advertiser boycott. And that will be what bankrupts the company." he said.

From BBC ● Dec. 2, 2023

“If it so happens that it bankrupts or puts these individuals and entities in financial peril, so be it,” the attorney general said in an interview when the case was filed.

From Washington Post ● Apr. 1, 2022

“If it so happens that it bankrupts or puts these individuals and entities in financial peril, so be it.”

From Seattle Times ● Dec. 14, 2021

The fight almost bankrupts the rural town of Shelby, Mont., which borrows heavily to stage it.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 4, 2020

"Take me away from here," she said, "you bankrupts."

From "The Sun Also Rises" by Ernest Hemingway

The amount in damages that creditors are seeking from former Enviva executives after a series of ill-fated wood-pellet trades bankrupted the green-energy giant.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 2026

Ruinous competition amid fixed costs bankrupted dozens of airlines in the 1980s and 1990s.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 10, 2026

In its defense, Cox argued that internet service providers could be bankrupted by huge lawsuits for copyright infringement, which they said they did not cause and could not prevent.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 25, 2026

The man who shot Abe, Tetsuya Yamagami, said he had held a grudge against the prime minister because of his ties with the Unification Church, which had bankrupted his family.

From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026

The Thirty Years’ War, which had pummeled and bankrupted much of Europe, was finally winding down, and intellectual life flourished.

From "The Girl Who Drew Butterflies: How Maria Merian's Art Changed Science" by Joyce Sidman

County lawyers have long viewed the $4-billion settlement as a good deal, arguing that taking the cases to trial would be a bankrupting proposition.

From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 26, 2026

Perhaps most evil are the acquisitions of hospitals for the sole purpose of bankrupting them and selling off assets to line someone else’s pockets.

From MarketWatch ● Jan. 26, 2026

The BOJ’s interest-rate increases may help by bankrupting some of Japan’s zombie companies that sop up resources with no hope of turning a profit.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 20, 2026

If successful, Energy Transfer’s $300 million lawsuit may end up bankrupting the advocacy group as a whole, both domestically and internationally.

From Slate ● Feb. 26, 2025

Leonardo is now in Rome, where a new pope from the Medici family—Pope Leo X—is busy bankrupting the Vatican by commissioning massive new works of art.

From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day

Related Words

• broke
• destitute
• failed
• insolvent