BANKRUPT • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Bankrupt

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/bˈæŋkrəpt/ Listen

adjective

Bankrupt adj.

1.

Being a bankrupt or in a condition of bankruptcy; unable to pay, or legally discharged from paying, one's debts; as, a bankrupt merchant.

2.

Depleted of money; not having the means of meeting pecuniary liabilities; as, a bankrupt treasury.

3.

Relating to bankrupts and bankruptcy.

4.

Destitute of, or wholly wanting (something once possessed, or something one should possess). "Bankrupt in gratitude."

Bankrupt law, a law by which the property of a person who is unable or unwilling to pay his debts may be taken and distributed to his creditors, and by which a person who has made a full surrender of his property, and is free from fraud, may be discharged from the legal obligation of his debts. See Insolvent, a.

noun

Bankrupt n.

1.

(Old Eng. Law) A trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors.

2.

A trader who becomes unable to pay his debts; an insolvent trader; popularly, any person who is unable to pay his debts; an insolvent person.

3.

(Law) A person who, in accordance with the terms of a law relating to bankruptcy, has been judicially declared to be unable to meet his liabilities. Note: In England, until the year 1861 none but a "trader" could be made a bankrupt; a non-trader failing to meet his liabilities being an "insolvent". But this distinction was abolished by the Bankruptcy Act of 1861. The laws of 1841 and 1867 of the United States relating to bankruptcy applied this designation bankrupt to others besides those engaged in trade.

verb

Bankrupt v. t. (past & past part. bankrupted; pres. part. bankrupting) To make bankrupt; to bring financial ruin upon; to impoverish.

See images of 'Bankrupt'

Etymology of 'Bankrupt'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Bankrupt" Quotes from Famous Books

... in St. Martin's Lane: where he met with misfortunes, and his daughter acquired her taste for heraldry. But it may be told to her credit, that out of her earnings she has kept the bed-ridden old bankrupt in great comfort and secrecy at Pentonville; and furnished her brother's outfit for the Cadetship which her patron, Lord Swigglebiggle, gave her when he was at the Board of Control. I have this information from a friend. To hear Miss Wirt herself, you would fancy that her Papa was a Rothschild, ...

— The Book of Snobs • William Makepeace Thackeray

... not the play, "The Bankrupt," preceded or followed the writing of "Francesca da Rimini" in 1853, we have no way of determining; but it would seem that it progressed no further in its stage career than in manuscript form, it being the only play on a modern theme attempted ...

— Representative Plays by American Dramatists: 1856-1911: Francesca da Rimini • George Henry Boker

... glory warms! The frailest leaf, the mossy bark, The acorn's cup, the raindrop's arc, The swinging spider's silver line, The ruby of the drop of wine, The shining pebble of the pond, Thou inscribest with a bond, In thy momentary play, Would bankrupt nature to repay. ...

— Poems - Household Edition • Ralph Waldo Emerson

... influential bankers and merchants, were assured—by a thousand chattering—but as it were invisible—tongues, that the Queen had for a long time disliked Leicester; that he was a man of no account among the statesmen of England; that he was a beggar and a bankrupt; that, if he had waited two months longer, he would have made his appearance in the Provinces with one man and one boy for his followers; that the Queen had sent him thither to be rid of him; that she never intended him to have more authority than Sir John Norris ...

— The Rise of the Dutch Republic, 1555-1566 • John Lothrop Motley

... bankrupt me. As it is, my fund is dwindling faster than I like to see, though every lessening of it means a lessening of real trouble to some one. I should like to tell Miss De Voe what good her money has done already, but fear ...

— The Honorable Peter Stirling and What People Thought of Him • Paul Leicester Ford

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