BANKRUPT

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does bankrupt mean? 

• BANKRUPT (noun)
  The noun BANKRUPT has 1 sense:

1. someone who has insufficient assets to cover their debts

  Familiarity information: BANKRUPT used as a noun is very rare.

• BANKRUPT (adjective)
  The adjective BANKRUPT has 1 sense:

1. financially ruined

  Familiarity information: BANKRUPT used as an adjective is very rare.

• BANKRUPT (verb)
  The verb BANKRUPT has 1 sense:

1. reduce to bankruptcy

  Familiarity information: BANKRUPT used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BANKRUPT (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Someone who has insufficient assets to cover their debts

Classified under:

Nouns denoting people

Synonyms:

bankrupt; insolvent

Hypernyms ("bankrupt" is a kind of...):

failure; loser; nonstarter; unsuccessful person (a person with a record of failing; someone who loses consistently)

Derivation:

bankrupt (financially ruined)

• BANKRUPT (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Financially ruined

Synonyms:

bankrupt; belly-up

Context example:

the company went belly-up

Similar:

insolvent (unable to meet or discharge financial obligations)

Derivation:

bankrupt (someone who has insufficient assets to cover their debts)

• BANKRUPT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they bankrupt    ... he / she / it bankrupts   
Past simple: bankrupted   
Past participle: bankrupted   
-ing form: bankrupting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Reduce to bankruptcy

Classified under:

Verbs of buying, selling, owning

Synonyms:

bankrupt; break; ruin; smash

Context example:

The slump in the financial markets smashed him

Hypernyms (to "bankrupt" is one way to...):

impoverish (make poor)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

bankruptcy (inability to discharge all your debts as they come due)

 Context examples 

“You are a blessed, bankrupt pair of fools. You have no facts in your pocketbook.”

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

After a few days, sober and bankrupt, Grey Beaver departed up the Porcupine on his long journey to the Mackenzie.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

Daisy, who was fond of going about peddling kisses, lost her best customer and became bankrupt.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Bankrupt, as he believed, alike in circumstances, in all other hope, and in honour, his sole reliance was upon the monster in the garb of man,—Mr. Micawber made a good deal of this, as a new turn of expression,—““who, by making himself necessary to him, had achieved his destruction. All this I undertake to show. Probably much more!””

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Mr. St. John, when he grew up, would go to college and be a parson; and the girls, as soon as they left school, would seek places as governesses: for they had told her their father had some years ago lost a great deal of money by a man he had trusted turning bankrupt; and as he was now not rich enough to give them fortunes, they must provide for themselves.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

"He'd kill them on sight. If he didn't bankrupt me with damage suits, the authorities would take him away from me and electrocute him."

(White Fang, by Jack London)

You cannot bankrupt him.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)