bankrupt

comparative more bankrupt · superlative most bankrupt

1. usuallycompanybusinessIn a condition of bankruptcy; unable to pay outstanding debts or meet financial obligations; specifically, having been legally declared insolvent.First known use 1565

   a bankrupt merchant

   1 more example

   "How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked. "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly."

   1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, page 141

   Synonyms: almsless, arm, badly off, beggared, beggarly, boracic, broke, broken

2. figurativelyDestitute of, or wholly lacking a good quality, value, etc. one should possess or once possessed.First known use 1567

   a morally bankrupt politician

   2 more examples

   a creatively bankrupt endeavor

   O Julia! I am bankrupt in gratitude! but the time is ſo preſſing, it calls on you for ſo haſty a reſolution.

   1775 January 17 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The Rivals, a Comedy. […], London: […] John Wilkie, […], published 1775, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 80

present singular third person bankrupts · participle present bankrupting · participle past bankrupted · past bankrupted

1. transitiveTo force into bankruptcy.

   The cost of the Mendip line had, however, bankrupted the S.D.R. [Somerset & Dorset Railway], and it was leased to the two larger companies for 999 years in 1875, and named the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway.

   1953 August, David R. Webb, “By Rail to Bournemouth”, in Railway Magazine, page 553

2. card gamesto get placed last in Tycoon with the bankruptcy rule

plural bankrupts

1. One who becomes unable to pay his or her debts; an insolvent person; a bankruptee.
2. UKobsoletelawA trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors.