bankrupt
[bangk-ruhpt, -ruh pt]
- Law. a person who upon his or her own petition or that of his or her creditors is adjudged insolvent by a court and whose property is administered for and divided among his or her creditors under a bankruptcy law.
- any insolvent debtor; a person unable to satisfy any just claims made upon him or her.
- a person who is lacking in a particular thing or quality: a moral bankrupt.
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- Law. subject to or under legal process because of insolvency; insolvent.
- at the end of one's resources; lacking (usually followed by of or in): bankrupt of compassion; bankrupt in good manners.
- pertaining to bankrupts or bankruptcy.
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- to make bankrupt: His embezzlement bankrupted the company.
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Origin of bankrupt
1525–35; < Medieval Latin banca rupta bank broken; replacing adaptations of Italian banca rota and French banqueroute in same sense
Synonyms
See more synonyms for bankrupt on Thesaurus.com4. destitute, impoverished.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for bankrupted
Contemporary Examples
Strangely, none of these failed predictions have bankrupted the prophetic project.
One can easily imagine the Democratic ads: “Even Newt Gingrich said Romney robbed companies and bankrupted them.”
It bankrupted him, compelling the marbles' sale to the museum.
Eleven well-known speculators killed themselves, and many more were bankrupted.
Historical Examples
The panic destroyed the railways and bankrupted the inhabitants.
The Last American FrontierFrederic L. (Frederic Logan) Paxson
Any other industry than that of agriculture would have been bankrupted.
History of Farming in OntarioC. C. James
Heredity has bankrupted him before he started on his career.
Black and WhiteTimothy Thomas Fortune
Let me not have bankrupted myself for a trust thou wilt not give!
The City of DelightElizabeth Miller
He would have drained dry a king's treasury, and have bankrupted Monte-Cristo's island of buried millions.
The Stones of Paris in History and Letters, Volume II (of 2)Benjamin Ellis Martin
bankrupt
- 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 nonexistenta spiritual bankrupt
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- adjudged insolvent
- financially ruined
- depleted in resources or having completely failedspiritually bankrupt
- (foll by of) British lackingbankrupt of intelligence
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- (tr) to make bankrupt
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Word Origin
C16: from Old French banqueroute, from Old Italian bancarotta, from banca bank 1 + rotta broken, from Latin ruptus, from rumpere to break
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for bankrupted
bankrupt
adj.
1560s, from Italian banca rotta, literally "a broken bench," from banca "moneylender's shop," literally "bench" (see bank (n.1)) + rotta "broken, defeated, interrupted" from (and remodeled on) Latin rupta, fem. past participle of rumpere "to break" (see rupture (n.)). "[S]o called from the habit of breaking the bench of bankrupts" [Klein]. Earlier in English as a noun, "bankrupt person" (1530s).
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bankrupt
v.
1550s, from bankrupt (adj.). Related: Bankrupted; bankrupting.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper