bankrupt

from WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006)
bankrupt
    adj 1: financially ruined; "a bankrupt company"; "the company
           went belly-up" [syn: {bankrupt}, {belly-up(p)}]
    n 1: someone who has insufficient assets to cover their debts
         [syn: {bankrupt}, {insolvent}]
    v 1: reduce to bankruptcy; "My daughter's fancy wedding is going
         to break me!"; "The slump in the financial markets smashed
         him" [syn: {bankrupt}, {ruin}, {break}, {smash}]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Bankrupt \Bank"rupt\, a.
   1. Being a bankrupt or in a condition of bankruptcy; unable
      to pay, or legally discharged from paying, one's debts;
      as, a bankrupt merchant.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. Depleted of money; not having the means of meeting
      pecuniary liabilities; as, a bankrupt treasury.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Relating to bankrupts and bankruptcy.
      [1913 Webster]

   4. Destitute of, or wholly wanting (something once possessed,
      or something one should possess). "Bankrupt in gratitude."
      --Sheridan.
      [1913 Webster]

   {Bankrupt law}, a law by which the property of a person who
      is unable or unwilling to pay his debts may be taken and
      distributed to his creditors, and by which a person who
      has made a full surrender of his property, and is free
      from fraud, may be discharged from the legal obligation of
      his debts. See {Insolvent}, a.
      [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Bankrupt \Bank"rupt\, n. [F. banqueroute, fr. It. bancarotta
   bankruptcy; banca bank (fr. OHG. banch, G. bank, bench) +
   rotta broken, fr. L. ruptus, p. p. of rumpere to break. At
   Florence, it is said, the bankrupt had his bench (i.e., money
   table) broken. See 1st {Bank}, and {Rupture}, n.]
   1. (Old Eng. Law) A trader who secretes himself, or does
      certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors.
      --Blackstone.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A trader who becomes unable to pay his debts; an insolvent
      trader; popularly, any person who is unable to pay his
      debts; an insolvent person. --M`Culloch.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. (Law) A person who, in accordance with the terms of a law
      relating to bankruptcy, has been judicially declared to be
      unable to meet his liabilities.
      [1913 Webster]

   Note: In England, until the year 1861 none but a "trader"
         could be made a bankrupt; a non-trader failing to meet
         his liabilities being an "insolvent". But this
         distinction was abolished by the Bankruptcy Act of
         1861. The laws of 1841 and 1867 of the United States
         relating to bankruptcy applied this designation
         bankrupt to others besides those engaged in trade.
         [1913 Webster]
    
from The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48
Bankrupt \Bank"rupt\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Bankrupted}; p. pr. &
   vb. n. {Bankrupting}.]
   To make bankrupt; to bring financial ruin upon; to
   impoverish.
   [1913 Webster]
    
from Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856)
BANKRUPT. A person who has done, or suffered some act to be done, which is 
by law declared an act of bankruptcy; in such case he may be declared a 
bankrupt. 
     2. It is proper to notice that there is much difference between a 
bankrupt and an insolvent. A man may be a bankrupt, and yet be perfectly 
solvent; that is, eventually able to pay all his debts or, he may be 
insolvent, and, in consequence of not having done, or suffered, an act of 
bankruptcy. He may not be a bankrupt. Again, the bankrupt laws are intended 
mainly to secure creditors from waste, extravagance, and mismanagement, by 
seizing the property out of the hands of the debtors, and placing it in the 
custody of the law; whereas the insolvent laws only relieve a man from 
imprisonment for debt after he has assigned his property for the benefit of 
his creditors. Both under bankrupt and insolvent laws the debtor is required 
to surrender his property, for the benefit of his creditors. Bankrupt laws 
discharge the person from imprisonment, and his property, acquired after his 
discharge, from all liabilities for his debts insolvent laws simply 
discharge the debtor from imprisonment, or liability to be imprisoned, but 
his after-acquired property may be taken in satisfaction of his former 
debts. 2 Bell, Com. B. 6, part 1, c. 1, p. 162; 3 Am. Jur. 218. 
    
from Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0
117 Moby Thesaurus words for "bankrupt":
      almsman, almswoman, also-ran, ausgespielt, bankrupt in, bare,
      bare of, beggar, bereft of, blasted, blighted, break, broke,
      broken, bust, busted, casual, charity case, denudate, denude,
      denuded of, deprive, deprived of, desolated, destitute,
      destitute of, destroyed, devastated, devoid of, dilapidate,
      dismantle, disrobe, divest, done for, done in, down-and-out,
      down-and-outer, drain, draw, draw down, dud, empty of, exhaust,
      failed, failure, fallen, false alarm, finished, flop, fold up,
      for want of, forlorn of, fortuneless, gone to pot, hardcase,
      homeless, impair, impoverish, in default of, in receivership,
      in ruins, in the gutter, in the red, in want of, incapacitate,
      indigent, insolvent, insolvent debtor, irremediable, kaput,
      lacking, lame duck, landless, loser, missing, moneyless, needing,
      on the rocks, out of, out of funds, out of pocket, overthrown,
      pauper, pauperize, penniless, penniless man, poor devil, poor man,
      poorling, propertyless, ravaged, reduce, ruin, ruined, ruinous,
      scant of, scuttle, shipwreck, short, short of, shy, shy of, sink,
      spoiled, starveling, unblessed with, undone, unpossessed of,
      use up, void of, wanting, washout, wasted, welfare client,
      without a sou, wreck, wrecked

    

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