bankrupt
English
editEtymology
editPartial 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
editbankrupt (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
editTranslations
edithaving been legally declared insolvent
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See also
editVerb
editbankrupt (third-person singular simple present bankrupts, present participle bankrupting, simple past and past participle bankrupted)
- (transitive) To force into bankruptcy.
Translations
editforce into bankruptcy
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Noun
editbankrupt (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
editinsolvent person
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Derived terms
editReferences
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
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- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹəpt
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹəpt/2 syllables
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹʌpt
- Rhymes:English/æŋkɹʌpt/2 syllables
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