bankrupt
Jump to navigation
Jump to search
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Partial calque of Italian banca rotta, which refers to an out-of-business bank, having its bench physically broken. When a moneylender in Northern Italy became insolvent, they would break the bench they worked from to signify that they were no longer in business. (Vocabolario Etimologico della Lingua Italiano 1907)
Pronunciation
[edit]- (UK) IPA(key): /ˈbæŋ.kɹəpt/, /ˈbæŋ.kɹʌpt/
- (US) IPA(key): /ˈbæŋk.ɹəpt/, /ˈbæŋk.ɹʌpt/
Audio (Southern England): (file) - Rhymes: -æŋkɹəpt, -æŋkɹʌpt
Adjective
[edit]bankrupt (comparative more bankrupt, superlative most bankrupt)
- (finance) In a condition of bankruptcy; unable to pay one's debts.
- a bankrupt merchant
- 1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, page 141:
- "How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked. "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly."
- Having been legally declared insolvent.
- Destitute of, or wholly lacking (something once possessed, or something one should possess).
- a morally bankrupt politician
- 1775 January 17 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The Rivals, a Comedy. […], London: […] John Wilkie, […], published 1775, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 80:
- O Julia! I am bankrupt in gratitude! but the time is ſo preſſing, it calls on you for ſo haſty a reſolution.
Synonyms
[edit]Translations
[edit]having been legally declared insolvent
|
See also
[edit]Verb
[edit]bankrupt (third-person singular simple present bankrupts, present participle bankrupting, simple past and past participle bankrupted)
- (transitive) To force into bankruptcy.
Translations
[edit]force into bankruptcy
|
Noun
[edit]bankrupt (plural bankrupts)
- One who becomes unable to pay his or her debts; an insolvent person.
- (UK, law, obsolete) A trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors.
Translations
[edit]insolvent person
|
Derived terms
[edit]References
[edit]- Michael Quinion (2004) “Bankrupt”, in Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds: Ingenious Tales of Words and Their Origins, Washington, D.C.: Smithsonian Books in association with Penguin Books, →ISBN.
- “bankrupt”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
Categories:
- English terms calqued from Italian
- English terms derived from Italian
- English 2-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms with audio links
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹəpt
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹəpt/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹʌpt
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹʌpt/2 syllables
- English lemmas
- English adjectives
- en:Finance
- English terms with collocations
- English terms with quotations
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- British English
- en:Law
- English terms with obsolete senses
- en:People