Dictionary
Thesaurus
Encyclopedia
Translator
Web

bankruptive

 - 1 dictionary result
bank·rupt   (bāngk'rŭpt', -rəpt)   
n.  
  1. 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.

  2. 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
  1. To cause to become financially bankrupt.

  2. 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.
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Cite This Source
Search another word or see bankruptive on Thesaurus | Reference
FacebookTwitterFollow us: