bankruptcy - Definitions from Dictionary.com

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Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1) - Cite This Source - Share This

bank·rupt·cy

Audio Help [bangk-ruhpt-see, -ruh

p-see] Pronunciation Key

–noun, plural -cies.

1.	the state of being or becoming bankrupt.

2.	utter ruin, failure, depletion, or the like.

[Origin: 1690–1700; bankrupt + -cy

]

Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2006.

Encyclopædia Britannica, Inc.
bankruptcy

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American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

bank·rupt Audio Help (bāngk'rŭpt', -rəpt) Pronunciation Key
n.

Law A debtor that, upon voluntary petition or one invoked by the debtor's creditors, is judged legally insolvent. The debtor's remaining property is then administered for the creditors or is distributed among them.
A person who is totally lacking in a specified resource or quality: an intellectual bankrupt.

adj.

1. Having been legally declared financially insolvent.
2. Financially ruined; impoverished.
3. Depleted of valuable qualities or characteristics: a morally and ethically bankrupt politician.
4. Totally depleted; destitute: was bankrupt of new ideas.
5. Being in a ruined state: a bankrupt foreign policy.
1. Depleted of valuable qualities or characteristics: a morally and ethically bankrupt politician.
2. Totally depleted; destitute: was bankrupt of new ideas.
3. Being in a ruined state: a bankrupt foreign policy.

tr.v. bank·rupt·ed, bank·rupt·ing, bank·rupts

To cause to become financially bankrupt.
To ruin: an administration that bankrupted its credibility by seeking to manipulate the news.

[French banqueroute, from Italian banca rotta, broken counter (from the practice of breaking the counters of bankrupt bankers) : banca, moneychanger's table; see banco + rotta, past participle of rompere, to break (from Latin rumpere; see reup- in Indo-European roots).]

bank'rupt·cy (-rəpt-sē, -rəp-sē) n., bank·rup'tive adj.

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The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.

WordNet - Cite This Source - Share This

bankruptcy
noun
1.	a state of complete lack of some abstract property; "spiritual bankruptcy"; "moral bankruptcy"; "intellectual bankruptcy"
2.	inability to discharge all your debts as they come due; "the company had to declare bankruptcy"; "fraudulent loans led to the failure of many banks"
3.	a legal process intended to insure equality among the creditors of a corporation declared to be insolvent

American Heritage New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition - Cite This Source - Share This
bankruptcy

Legally declared insolvency, or inability to pay creditors.

Note: If an individual or a corporation declares bankruptcy, a court will appoint an official to make an inventory of the individual's or corporation's assets and to establish a schedule by which creditors can be partially repaid what is owed them.

Note: An individual who is lacking a specific resource or quality is sometimes said to be bankrupt, as in intellectually bankrupt or morally bankrupt.

[Chapter:] Business and Economics

Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary - Cite This Source - Share This

Bankruptcy

Bank"rupt*cy\, n.; pl. Bankruptcies(?). 1. The state of being actually or legally bankrupt.

2. The act or process of becoming a bankrupt.

3. Complete loss; -- followed by of.

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