kaput
Americanadjective
-
ruined; done for; demolished.
-
unable to operate or continue.
The washing machine is suddenly kaput.
idioms
adjective
Etymology
Origin of kaput
First recorded in 1890–95; from German: originally, “trickless” (in game of piquet), from French (être) capot “(to be) without tricks,” i.e., make zero score
Explanation
Something that's kaput is broken, dead, or worthless. When your old car is finally kaput, it's not even worth fixing. You can use the adjective kaput to describe things that have stopped working as well as those that are utterly destroyed: "After the war, the whole village was basically kaput." You might have a fight with a pal and feel like your friendship is kaput, or quit your job and say, "Well, my career as a grocery bagger is kaput." The word comes from the German kaputt, "destroyed or lost."
Vocabulary lists containing kaput
Don't Want to Be Your Monster
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Each Little Bird That Sings
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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.
So as the season begins, The Bear is long on stress, short on food, the plumbing is kaput, the reservation line has stopped working and then started again and the place is impossibly overbooked.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 25, 2026
I feel I need to go until I’m done thinking or until my brain just goes kaput.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2025
His latest acquisition is a spider that, unbeknown to Kaleb, was smuggled from a Middle Eastern desert after rendering one of its captors agonizingly kaput.
From New York Times ● Apr. 25, 2024
"Don't worry about this Rwanda issue. It is kaput," he claimed.
From BBC ● Apr. 24, 2024
And then I think, does she mean “finished,” as in kaput, over and done with, out of commission?
From "The Unfinished Angel" by Sharon Creech
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.
