I. ˈbaŋk.ˌrəpt, -aiŋ-, -ŋ_krəpt noun
( -s )
Etymology: modification (influenced by Latin ruptus ) of Middle French & Old Italian; Middle French banqueroute, from Old Italian bancarotta, from banca bank + rotta broken, from Latin rupta, feminine of ruptus, past participle of rumpere to break — more at bank , reave
1. obsolete : bankruptcy
2.
a. obsolete : a person who to avoid payment of his debts secretes himself, flees the country, or defrauds or simply avoids his creditors and is in consequence legally a criminal
b. : any person who has done any of the acts that the law provides shall entitle his creditors to have his estate administered for their benefit (as by the making of a general assignment)
c. : a person who has on the petition of his creditors or on his own petition been judicially declared subject to having his estate administered under the bankrupt laws for the benefit of his creditors
d. : a person who becomes insolvent — not used technically
3. : one who is destitute of or completely lacking in a particular thing
a moral bankrupt
a bankrupt in all that is intellectually valuable
II. transitive verb
( -ed/-ing/-s )
1.
a. : to bring about the legal bankruptcy of
high taxes and poor sales bankrupted the company
b. : deplete , impoverish
war had bankrupted the nation's natural resources and manpower
2.
a. : to render destitute of : deprive
a nervous breakdown bankrupted him of courage to face society
b. : to spoil completely : ruin
his revision made the novel more accurate historically but bankrupted it as a work of art
Synonyms: see deplete
III. adjective
1.
a. : in a state of financial ruin
the nation's finances are bankrupt
: impoverished
bankrupt peasantry
specifically : declared legally insolvent and with assets taken over by judicial process in order that they may be distributed among creditors
a bankrupt corporation
the original owner of the company went bankrupt
b. : having to do with bankrupts or bankruptcy
bankrupt laws
2.
a. : broken , ruined
a bankrupt professional career
: come to an end : finished
bankrupt politicians
b. : depleted, sterile , exhausted
the conviction … that the world was morally and religiously bankrupt — G.G.Coulton
a bankrupt old culture
c. : destitute , deprived — used with of or in
bankrupt of all merciful feelings
bankrupt in resources