Bankrupt Meaning
/ˈbæŋk.ɹəpt/Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
adjIn a condition of bankruptcy; unable to pay outstanding debts or meet financial obligations; specifically, having been legally declared insolvent.
adjDestitute of, or wholly lacking a good quality, value, etc. one should possess or once possessed.
Sentence Examples
We were financially troubled, in short, we were bankrupt.
The company went bankrupt.
CEFR Practice Quiz
After losing all his money in bad investments, the businessman became completely ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The small company went ____ after losing its biggest customer today.
Word Origin & History
Partial calque of Italian bancarotta (literally “a broken bench”), from banca (“bank”, literally “bench”) + rotta (“broken, rupted”), which refers to an out-of-business bank, having its bench physically broken, signifying that the working moneylender was insolvent.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
""How did you go bankrupt?" Bill asked. "Two ways," Mike said. "Gradually and then suddenly.""
— 1926, Ernest Hemingway, The Sun Also Rises, page 141:
"O Julia! I am bankrupt in gratitude! but the time is ſo preſſing, it calls on you for ſo haſty a reſolution."
— 1775 January 17 (first performance), [Richard Brinsley Sheridan], The Rivals, a Comedy. […], London: […] John Wilkie, […], published 1775, →OCLC, Act V, scene i, page 80:
"The cost of the Mendip line had, however, bankrupted the S.D.R. [Somerset & Dorset Railway], and it was leased to the two larger companies for 999 years in 1875, and named the Somerset & Dorset Joint Railway."
— 1953 August, David R. Webb, “By Rail to Bournemouth”, in Railway Magazine, page 553:
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CEFR Practice Quiz
After losing all his money in bad investments, the businessman became completely ____.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
The small company went ____ after losing its biggest customer today.