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
-
(foll by of) lacking
bankrupt of intelligence
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bankruptsimple
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bankruptssimple
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have bankruptedperfect
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has bankruptedperfect
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am bankruptingprogressive
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are bankruptingprogressive
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is bankruptingprogressive
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have been bankruptingperfect progressive
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has been bankruptingperfect progressive
Past
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bankruptedsimple
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had bankruptedperfect
-
was bankruptingprogressive
-
were bankruptingprogressive
-
had been bankruptingperfect progressive
Future
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.)
Vocabulary lists containing bankrupt
Figurative Language in King's "I Have a Dream" Speech (1963)
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Make a Break for It: Rupt
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The Great Depression and The New Deal
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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.
See Examples For:
“So the taxpayers of the United States subsidized the creation of this new property to help bankrupt another federally subsidized property,” he said.
From Salon ● Jul. 4, 2026
The Clippers, of course, have been accused of paying Leonard $28 million through an endorsement deal with bankrupt sustainability company Aspiration.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
And several EV startups have aimed for the sky only to fall short: Just look at electric-truck makers Nikola and Fisker, which went bankrupt in 2024.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 24, 2026
He also argued that he had changed Labour after inheriting a party that was "politically, financially and morally bankrupt".
From BBC ● Jun. 22, 2026
They refused to waste their time on a bankrupt theory that would destroy their reputation as code breakers.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
"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 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
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.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 23, 2026
The cases are ongoing, with plaintiffs also filing claims against the trusts of companies bankrupted by the litigation.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jan. 29, 2026
While her husband and his ministers bankrupted France, she played at the simple life.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 8, 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
The center filed lawsuits aimed at bankrupting Klan organizations, unsympathetic defendants that made easy targets.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 30, 2026
His comments follow a series of warnings over the recent surge in investment in AI, with some claiming the sector amounts to a bubble set to burst, rocking markets and bankrupting companies.
From BBC ● Jan. 27, 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
Hastings and Sarandos’ enterprise was largely responsible for bankrupting the then-dominant video rental chain, Blockbuster.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 5, 2025
He thought nothing of bankrupting his own people to buy Rome’s protection.
From "Sterling Biographies®: Cleopatra: Egypt's Last and Greatest Queen" by Susan Blackaby
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.
