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bank·rupt (băngk′rŭpt′, -rəpt)
- Law A person, business, or organization legally declared insolvent because of inability to pay debts.
- A person who is totally lacking in a specified resource or quality: an intellectual bankrupt.
adj.
1.
a. Having been legally declared insolvent.
b. Financially ruined; impoverished.
2.
a. Depleted of valuable qualities or characteristics: a morally and ethically bankrupt politician.
b. Totally depleted; destitute: was bankrupt of new ideas.
c. Being in a ruined state: a bankrupt foreign policy.
tr.v. bank·rupt·ed, bank·rupt·ing, bank·rupts - To cause to become financially bankrupt.
- To ruin: an administration that bankrupted its credibility by seeking to manipulate the news.
[French banqueroute, from Italian banca rotta, broken counter (from the practice of breaking the counters of bankrupt bankers) : banca, moneychanger’s table; see bank2 + rotta, feminine of rotto, past participle of rompere, to break (from Latin rumpere; see reup- in Indo-European roots).]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
bankrupt (ˈbæŋkrʌpt; -rəpt)
n - (Law) a person adjudged insolvent by a court, his or her property being transferred to a trustee and administered for the benefit of his creditors
- (Banking & Finance) 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.
adj - (Law) adjudged insolvent
- (Banking & Finance) financially ruined
- depleted in resources or having completely failed: spiritually bankrupt.
- (foll by of) Brit lacking: bankrupt of intelligence.
vb
(tr) to make bankrupt
[C16: from Old French banqueroute, from Old Italian bancarotta, from banca bank1 + rotta broken, from Latin ruptus, from rumpere to break]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014
bank•rupt (ˈbæŋk rʌpt, -rəpt)
n. - a person who is adjudged insolvent by a court and whose property is divided among creditors under the bankruptcy laws.
- any insolvent debtor; a person unable to satisfy any just claims made upon him or her.
- a person lacking in a particular thing or quality: a moral bankrupt.
adj. - subject to legal process because of insolvency; insolvent.
- lacking something; bereft (usu. fol. by of or in): bankrupt of compassion.
- pertaining to bankruptcy.
v.t. - to make bankrupt.
[1525–35; Latinization of Middle French banqueroute or Italian banca rota literally, broken bank]

