Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The state of being bankrupt.
  • noun A legal proceeding that allows for a person or entity to be declared bankrupt.
  • noun The system of adjudication that declares instances of bankruptcy.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The state of being bankrupt or insolvent; inability to pay all debts; failure in trade.
  • noun Figuratively, utter wreck; ruin.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The state of being actually or legally bankrupt.
  • noun The act or process of becoming a bankrupt.
  • noun Complete loss; -- followed by of.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A legally declared or recognized condition of insolvency of a person or organization.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a legal process intended to insure equality among the creditors of a corporation declared to be insolvent
  • noun a state of complete lack of some abstract property
  • noun inability to discharge all your debts as they come due

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

bankrupt +‎ -cy

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Examples

  • And a Harvard University study shows that the average medical debt for people who have ended up in bankruptcy is $12,000.

    Healthcare Reform Bill passes out of Ways & Means (Blog for Democracy) 2009

  • Get used to the fact that the term bankruptcy is meaningless in the context of what is going on, and for such enormous balance sheets like AIG's.

    Jobs and the Economy Steve Hulett 2009

  • But, you know, the minute that they said that there was obviously uproar in Detroit, because the car companies have been very, very resistant to having anything with the label bankruptcy on it even if it is an orderly bankruptcy.

    CNN Transcript Dec 19, 2008 2008

  • Because of the unique nature of the infrastructure, and the environmental rules vis a vis underground tanks, the best use for a gasoline station sold in bankruptcy is another gasoline station.

    Coyote Blog » 2005 » May 2005

  • Because of the unique nature of the infrastructure, and the environmental rules vis a vis underground tanks, the best use for a gasoline station sold in bankruptcy is another gasoline station.

    Coyote Blog » Blog Archive » Protecting the Consumers from Low Gas Prices 2005

  • "When you hear the word bankruptcy attached to a major city in Pennsylvania, that's the time where all these parties have to get together and say we need to find something else here."

    Yahoo! News: Business - Opinion 2011

  • The most obvious explanation—weekend reports of a ¥570 billion $7.1 billion current-year loss and an utterance of the word "bankruptcy" from the Tokyo Stock Exchange's president—is also the least sensible.

    Tepco's Accidental Bankruptcy? Joseph Sternberg 2011

  • The most obvious explanation—weekend reports of a ¥570 billion $7.1 billion current-year loss and an utterance of the word "bankruptcy" from the Tokyo Stock Exchange's president—is also the least sensible.

    Tepco's Accidental Bankruptcy? Joseph Sternberg 2011

  • We previously didn't have the negative identity associated with the word 'bankruptcy' to deal with,'' said Mr. Hilson, whose group had urged county officials to not file for Chapter 9.

    Birmingham Fears Bankruptcy Taint Mike Esterl 2011

  • I believe this economy will turn around within a year but not if this bankruptcy is allowed to proceed.

    Obama Praises Efforts by Besieged Automakers - The Caucus Blog - NYTimes.com 2008

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