Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.

Bankrupt

Definition: Bankrupt

Bankrupt

Adjective

1. Financially ruined; "a bankrupt company".

Noun

1. Someone who has insufficient assets to cover their debts.

Verb

1. Reduce to bankruptcy; "My daughter's fancy wedding is going to break me!".

Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
 

Date "bankrupt" was first used in popular English literature: sometime before 1509. (references)


Specialty Definition: Bankrupt

DomainDefinition

Dream Interpretation

Denotes partial collapse in business, and weakening of the brain faculties. A warning to leave speculations alone. Source: Ten Thousand Dreams Interpreted ....

Law

A person who to avoid payment of his debts secretes himself, flees the country, or defrauds or simply avoids his creditors and is in consequence legally a criminal. Source: European Union. (references)
 The debtor in bankruptcy proceedings. Source: European Union. (references)

Literature

Bankrupt Money-lenders in Italy used to display the money they had to lend out on a banco or bench. When one of these money-lenders was unable to continue business, his bench or counter was broken up, and he himself was spoken of as a bancorotto - i.e. a bankrupt. Source: Brewer's Dictionary.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Synonyms: Bankrupt

Synonyms: insolvent (n), break (v), ruin (v). (additional references)
Synonyms by domain: bankrupting (law).

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Synonyms within Context: Bankrupt

ContextSynonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus).

Failure

Victim; bankrupt; flunker, flunky.

Lost, undone, ruined, broken; bankrupt; (not paying); played out; done up, done for; dead beat, ruined root and branch, flambe, knocked on the head; destroyed.

Nonpayment

Verb: not pay; fail, break, stop payment; become insolvent, become bankrupt; be gazetted.

Insolvent, bankrupt, in the gazette, gazetted.

Bankrupt, insolvent, debtor, lame duck, man of straw, welsher, stag, defaulter, levanter.

Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus.

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Crosswords: Bankrupt

English words defined with "bankrupt": Act of bankruptcyBankrupted, BankruptingCessionary, crisisfailInsolvent lawTo keep good. (references)
Specialty definitions using "bankrupt": AmigaBANKRUPT CART, Break your Backdefaulting administrator, defaulting executorPaulo, Perishable Agricultural Commodities Act of 1930, PUBLIC MAN, Put up the ShuttersYellow-boy. (references)

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Modern Usage: Bankrupt

DomainUsage

Screenplays

A slavish concern for the composition of words is the sign of a bankrupt intellect (The Phantom Tollbooth; writing credit: Chuck Jones; Norton Juster)

You want to bankrupt somebody (Ally McBeal; writing credit: Henri Vernes)

The Hyatt went bankrupt and was put up for sale, Waterstreet Pavillion saw most of its stores go out of business, and only six months after opening, Autoworld closed due to a lack of visitors (Roger & Me; writing credit: Michael Moore)

Ouch! When you get those feelings, insurance companies start to go bankrupt. (Die Hard 2; writing credit: Steven E. de Souza)

Movie/TV Titles

The Bankrupt (1972)

A Bankrupt Honeymoon (1926)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Commercial Usage: Bankrupt

DomainTitle

Books

  • A New Democracy: Alternatives to a Bankrupt World Order (Global Issues Series) (reference)

  • Basic Bankrupt Law for Paralegals (reference)

  • How to Get Rich Buying Bankrupt Companies (reference)

  • Riding the Tiger: How to Outsmart the Computer That Is After Your Job. How Not to Bankrupt Your Organization With Information Management. How Good cl (reference)

  • Running on Empty: Bush, Congress, and the Politics of a Bankrupt Government (reference)

    (more book examples)

  

Music

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Photo Album: Bankrupt

ThumbnailDescription & CreditThumbnailDescription & Credit

Shylock's year, or 1840 with no bankrupt law. Credit: Library of Congress.

Bankrupt!. Credit: Library of Congress.

Source: pictures compiled by the editor from various references; see picture credits.

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Familiar Quotations: Bankrupt

AuthorQuotation

Henry David Thoreau

The universe seems bankrupt as soon as we begin to discuss the characters of individuals.

John Dryden

Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Historic Usage: Bankrupt

AuthorDateQuotation

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

1963

Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check which has come back marked "insufficient funds." But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. (Delivered on the steps at the Lincoln Memorial in Washington D.C. on August 28, 1912)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Use in Literature: Bankrupt

TitleAuthorQuote

Les Miserables

Hugo, Victor

The year 1830 had become bankrupt with the people

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Non-Fiction Usage: Bankrupt

SubjectTopicQuote

Business

Five major steel manufacturers went bankrupt in the last two years. (references)

Nearly 10 small to medium sized, district level bankrupt hospitals in Beijing have already been closed. (references)

The five bankrupt companies are Hanbo Steel, Sammi Steel, Kia Steel, Hwan-Young Steel, and Shinho Steel. (references)

Civil Liberties

Azerbaijan

Harassment of journalists, closures of newspapers and libel suits (which would bankrupt immediately any independent or opposition newspaper if upheld), created an atmosphere in which editors and journalists exercised self-censorship. (references)

Economic History

Georgia

These benefits are negligible, however, and the system is bankrupt. (references)

Panama

Several small retailers and two large firms have gone bankrupt in recent months. (references)

Political Economy

Lesotho

Thousands of jobs were lost, and many entrepreneurs went bankrupt. (references)

CANADA

In the wake of the September 11 attacks, a number of companies are expected to go bankrupt and assets will be sold off. (references)

Singapore

J.B. Jeyaretnam, a nonelected opposition member of Parliament, lost his seat in July when declared bankrupt due to his inability to pay defamation damages awarded to ruling party members in previous years. (references)

Political Rights

Singapore

In July J.B. Jeyaretnam, an opposition nonelected M.P. from the WP lost an appeal in a defamation suit and was declared bankrupt for failure to pay the damages awarded against him in previous years. (references)

Singapore

It intimidates the members of the opposition through the threat of libel suits and the subsequent loss of their political future, since large judgments in libel suits can lead to bankruptcy, and under the law bankrupt persons are ineligible to sit in Parliament. (references)

Trade

Bulgaria

At the same time, this option protects the exporter if the buyer goes bankrupt or cannot pay. (references)

Worker Rights

United Arab Emirates

In March the Minister of Social Affairs and Labor issued an order granting workers sponsored by closed or bankrupt companies a 6 month grace period in which to transfer their sponsorship to another company. (references)

Source: compiled by the editor from ICON Group International, Inc.; see credits.

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Spoken Usage: Bankrupt

SpeakerPhrase(s)

Rush Limbaugh

During the S&L scandal, many accounting firms got hit hard when they were the only solvent parties left to sue after the S&Ls went bankrupt.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Usage Frequency: Bankrupt

"Bankrupt" is generally used as an adjective (general or positive) -- approximately 84.93% of the time. "Bankrupt" is used about 563 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted)
Parts of SpeechPercentUsage per
100 Million Words
Rank in English
Adjective (general or positive)84.93%47812,429
Noun (singular)7.27%4153,521
Lexical Verb (infinitive)5.32%3063,341
Lexical Verb (base form)2.48%1493,893
                    Total100.00%563N/A

Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.

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Expression: Bankrupt

Expressions using "bankrupt": adjudicate smb. bankrupt bankrupt in bankrupt in intelligance Bankrupt law bankrupt smb. become bankrupt certificated bankrupt declare oneself a bankrupt go bankrupt mental bankrupt to go bankrupt. Additional references.

Hypenated Usage

Ending with "bankrupt": near-bankrupt.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Frequency of Internet Keywords: Bankrupt

The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com.
 
ExpressionFrequency
per Day
ExpressionFrequency
per Day

bankrupt

420

3do bankrupt

5

bankrupt cannondale

57

going bankrupt

5

bankrupt company

42

bankrupt attorney

5

bankrupt filing

22

abuse abused accuse accused accuses accusing arraigned arraigning arrest arrest arrested arson bankrupt bankruptcy burglar burglar burglary burglary charge charged civil conspiracy conspiracy conspire conspired conspires convict convict convicted convicti

4

bankrupt stock

18

datapeer bankrupt

4

bankrupt law

15

uk bankrupt

4

11 9 bankrupt family terrorism united

15

bankrupt onstream

4

bankrupt jackson michael

12

bankrupt lawyer

4

bankrupt airline

12

go bankrupt

4

file bankrupt

11

bankrupt credit

4

air bankrupt canada

10

bankrupt discharged finance home loan

4

bankrupt chapter 7

9

bankrupt canada

4

bankrupt business

8

air bankrupt canada lease

4

bankrupt credit card

7

airline bankrupt united

3

bankrupt discharged finance

6

bankrupt discharged home loan

3

bankrupt haul u

6

bankrupt chapter 11

3

loan bankrupt

6

personal bankrupt

3

mortgage for bankrupt

5

bankrupt california

3

bankrupt corporation

5

home bankrupt

3

chapter 13 bankrupt

5

bankrupt court

3
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

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Modern Translation: Bankrupt

Language Translations for "bankrupt"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses.

Afrikaans

  

bankrot (bankruptcy, failure). (various references)

   

Albanian

  

njeri i falimentuar (insolvent), i falimentuar (dilapidated, flat tire), falimentoj (fail), faliment. (various references)

   

Arabic 

  

‏مفلس (broke, bust, busty, down at heel, hard up, impecunious, insolvent, kaput, penniless, punk, ruined, unowned), ‏المفلس (insolvent), ‏أعلن افلاسه (go bust). (various references)

   

Bulgarian 

  

фалирал длъжник, фалирал (bust, insolvent, lame duck, on the rocks, played out, washed up). (various references)

   

Chinese 

  

(Bankruptcies, Bankruptcy, insolvent), ' (inverted, to change, to collapse, to fail, to fall, to go home, to pour, to the contrary, to tip, to topple, turn over, upset). (various references)

   

Czech

  

zkrachovaný (bust), konkursní dlužník, insolventní (insolvent). (various references)

   

Danish

  

fallent. (various references)

   

Dutch

  

bankroet (bankruptcy, failure). (various references)

   

Esperanto

  

bankrotulo, bankrotinto, bankrota. (various references)

   

Farsi 

  

ورشکسته (Broke), ورشکست کردن وشدن . (various references)

   

Finnish

  

vararikkoinen (insolvent), konkurssivelallinen. (various references)

   

French

  

failli. (various references)

   

Frisian

  

bankerot (bankruptcy, failure), fallyt. (various references)

   

German

  

bankrott (bankruptcy, bankruptly, breakdown, broke, collapse, debased, discredited, smashup). (various references)

   

Greek 

  

πτωχός, πτωχεύσας, χρεωκοπώ (fail, go bankrupt), χρεωκοπημένοσ, χρεωκοπημένος (insolvent), χρεοκοπημένος (in debt). (various references)

   

Hebrew 

  

לפשוט את "ר'ל (fail, go bankrupt, go broke, go into liquidation), פושט ר'ל (insolvent). (various references)

   

Hungarian

  

vagyonbukott, csődbe jutott. (various references)

   

Indonesian

  

bangkrut (insolvent), orang yang bangkrut. (various references)

   

Italian

  

bancarotta (bankruptcy), fallito (abortive, bankrupted, broke, failure, unpromising, unpromisingly, unsuccessful), fallimento (abortion, bankruptcy, bust, crackup, defeat, failing, failure, fiasco, miscarriage, smashup, washout). (various references)

   

Japanese Kanji 

  

身代限り (going bankrupt), 綻'来す (to be ruined, to fail, to go bankrupt), "者 (a bankrupt or insolvent person), 潰れる (to be smashed, to go bankrupt), 'れる (to be ruined, to break down, to collapse, to die, to drop, to fall, to fall senseless, to go bankrupt, to have a bad debt, to succumb to). (various references)

   

Japanese Katakana 

  

たおれる (to be ruined, to break down, to collapse, to die, to drop, to fall, to fall senseless, to go bankrupt, to have a bad debt, to succumb to), し" いかぎり (going bankrupt), つぶれる (to be smashed, to go bankrupt), はた"'きたす (to be ruined, to fail, to go bankrupt), はさ"しゃ (a bankrupt or insolvent person). (various references)

   

Korean 

  

파산하". (various references)

   

Manx

  

fer brisht, brishtagh (brittle), brisht (breached, broke, bust, cracked, deposed, deprived, discontinuous, fragmentary, insolvent, ruined, ruptured, shipwrecked, smashed, stony-broke, wrecked), brishey (bankruptcy, break, breakage, burst, cash, cashier, change money, contravention, crash, decode, depose, disbar, dismiss, dismissal, failure, fracture, go back, infringement, interrupt, interruption, pick, raise, repulse, ruin, small change, stump, violation, wane). (various references)

   

Papiamen

  

bankrut, fayit (bankruptcy, failure). (various references)

   

Pig Latin

  

ankruptbay.(various references)

   

Portuguese

  

falido (insolvent). (various references)

   

Romanian

  

ruina (blast, blight, crock, destroy, dilapidate, impair, Mar, overturn, ravage, ruin, sink, undo), insolvabil (insolvent, non-solvent), falit (insolvent, lame duck), falimentar, duce la faliment. (various references)

   

Russian 

  

несостоятельный (insolvent, untenable), банкрот несостоятельный, банкрот (defaulter, insolvent). (various references)

   

Serbo-Croatian

  

bankrotiran (stony broke). (various references)

   

Spanish

  

bancarrota, quiebra economica, quebrado (broken, broken through, cracked, fractionally, fractured, heartbroken, insolvent, lost, rough, uneven), insolvente (insolvent), hacer quebrar (break, leak, tear), falto de (barren of), falencia (bankruptcy, smashup), desfondado, arruinar (bane, beggar, blast, blight, break, dilapidate, leak, mess up, murder, ruin, scuttle, tear, throw over, wash out, wreck), arruinado (broken, bust, desolate, dilapidated, dilapidates, ruined, scuttles). (various references)

   

Swedish

  

konkursgäldenär, bankrutt (bankruptcy, failure, kaput, ruined). (various references)

   

Turkish

  

batmış (demersal, immersed, insolvent, ruined, sinked, steeped in), batırmak (break, bring to ruin, dip, immerse, jab, plunge, prickle, ruin, sink, stick, submerge, swamp), yoksun kimse, mahvolmuş (all up, banged up, damaged, gone, kaput, lost, perished, ruined, undone, up the spout, washed up, wrecked), mahvetmek (bang up, barbarize, be ruin of smb., beat smb. hollow, bring to ruin, bugger, bugger up, canker, cook, corrupt, cut up, damn, destroy, devastate, dish, do for, exterminate, finish, kill, knock into a cocked hat, lay in ruins, lay low, make havoc of, play havoc with, pulverize, queer, ruin, sink, skunk, slaughter, smash, smash up, split, take smb. to the cleaners, undo, wallop, work havoc, wreck), iflas ettirmek (bust, ruin), iflas etmiş kimse (insolvent), iflas etmiş (broke, insolvent), çökertmek (cause to collapse, crumple, indent, overthrow). (various references)

   

Turkmen 

  

tozmak (be bankrupt, wear out). (various references)

   

Ukrainian

  

розорити (bust), неспроможний боржник, неспроможний (invalid, untenable), неплатоспроможний (insolvent), збанкрутілий (bust, failed), банкрут (defaulter), довести до банкрутства. (various references)

   

Vietnamese 

  

vỡ nợ (bust), phá sản thiếu, người vỡ nợ (defaulter), mất hết, không có (destitute, devoid, inexistent, non-existent, short, unprovided). (various references)

   

Welsh

  

methdalwr. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references.

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Ancestral Language Translations: Bankrupt

LanguagePeriodTranslations
Latin500 BCE-Modern

decoctor. (various references)

Source: compiled by the editor from various references.

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Derivations & Misspellings: Bankrupt

Derivations

Words beginning with "bankrupt": bankruptcies, bankruptcy, bankrupted, bankrupting, bankrupts. (additional references)


Misspellings

"Bankrupt" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: bamkrupt, bancrupt, bankcrupt, bankrot, bankrupty, bonkrupt, Bozkurt. (additional references)

Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references).

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Rhyming with "Bankrupt"

# of Phoneme MatchesPronunciationWord(s) rhyming with "bankrupt" (pronounced ba"ngkrupt)
3-u p tdeveloped, enveloped, galloped, scalloped, underdeveloped, undeveloped, worshiped, worshipped.

Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits.

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Anagrams: Bankrupt

Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams

Words within the letters "a-b-k-n-p-r-t-u"

-2 letters: abrupt, turban.

-3 letters: brank, brant, brunt, buran, burnt, kaput, knaur, kraut, kurta, prank, pruta, punka, tabun, trank, trunk, unapt, unbar, urban.

-4 letters: abut, aunt, bank, bark, barn, bran, brat, brut, bunk, bunt, bura, burn, burp, karn, kart, kbar, knap, knar, knur, kuna, nark, pant, park, part, prat, prau, puna, punk, punt, rank, rant.

 Words containing the letters "a-b-k-n-p-r-t-u"
 

+1 letter: bankrupts.

 

+2 letters: bankruptcy, bankrupted.

 

+3 letters: bankrupting.

 

+4 letters: bankruptcies.

Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits.

SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro.

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INDEX

1. Definition
2. Synonyms
3. Crosswords
4. Usage: Modern
5. Usage: Commercial
6. Images: Photo Album
7. Quotations: Familiar
8. Quotations: Historic
9. Quotations: Fiction
10. Quotations: Non-fiction
11. Quotations: Spoken
12. Usage Frequency
13. Expressions
14. Expressions: Internet
15. Translations: Modern
16. Translations: Ancient
17. Derivations
18. Rhymes
19. Anagrams
20. Bibliography


  

Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.