bankrupt
Americannoun
-
bankrupts
plural
-
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.
-
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)
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bankrupts,
present (3rd person singular)
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bankrupted,
past participle, past
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bankrupting
present participle
noun
-
a person adjudged insolvent by a court, his or her property being transferred to a trustee and administered for the benefit of his creditors
-
any person unable to discharge all his or her debts
-
a person whose resources in a certain field are exhausted or nonexistent
a spiritual bankrupt
adjective
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adjudged insolvent
-
financially ruined
-
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
-
bankruptedsimple
-
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:
Peter Johnson, formerly of Barclays, pleaded guilty in Britain for fear that mounting a defense would bankrupt him.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 14, 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
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
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
“When I built the cable company, in the early stages, I was making deals where I would have been bankrupt if I hadn’t pulled it off. I had confidence that I could make it work.”
From "Outliers" by Malcolm Gladwell
Judge Kenesaw Mountain Landis, the authors write, tried to ensure that only “honest but unfortunate” debtors benefited from bankruptcy’s by directing “professional bankrupts . . . to restitution or jail.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 27, 2026
“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
The customer who plays zero-sum games against them may win from time to time but never systematically, and never so spectacularly that he bankrupts the casino.
From "The Big Short" by Michael Lewis
Congress voted to ban onion trading in the U.S. decades ago, following a notorious market-manipulation scandal that bankrupted investors and farmers across the U.S.
From MarketWatch ● Oct. 20, 2026
After cost overruns at America’s last big nuclear power project bankrupted Westinghouse Electric, the company is in the midst of a turnaround and looking at an IPO on the horizon.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 1, 2026
Instead of producing big profits that would spur payouts for Enviva’s C-suite, however, the nine-figure trades backfired and bankrupted the company, which once had a nearly $6 billion market value.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 27, 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
The nation’s electric utilities aren’t stepping up because the last two AP1000 units, completed over 2023-24, came in way over budget and took more than a decade to finish, bankrupting Westinghouse in the process.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 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
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
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
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