Forms: 6–7 bankerupt, bancke-, banquerout(e, banke-, bankrout, 7 banckrowt, -rout, -rupt, banquerupt, 6– bankrupt. [Connected in origin with the sb. in sense 2, and, like that, peculiar to Eng. It may be the short pa. pple. of the vb. to BANKRUPT, influenced also by L. rupt-us broken.]
1. Under legal process because of insolvency; unable to pay debts; insolvent. For the historical development of the senses, see BANKRUPT sb. 2.
1570. Levins, Manip., /228. Bankerout, fidifragus, ære alieno oppressus.
1580. Baret, Alv., B 139. He is banqueroute. Il est faict banqueroupte.
1592. No-body & Some-b. (1878), 283. To make that Nobody bankrout, make him flie His Country, and be never heard of more.
1631. Knevet, Rhodon & Iris, II. iii.
| She must not like a bankrupt Tenant prove, | |
| That flyes by night from an unprofitable Farme. |
1710. Pol. Ballads (1860), 73. The bankrupt nation to restore, And pay the millions lent.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xviii. Breaking the heart of that ruined bankrupt man.
2. fig. (various aspects of the bankrupt.)
† a. Discredited, having forfeited all credit. Obs.
1566. T. Stapleton, Ret. Untr. Jewel. For farder Credit off your Worde, you will stande (I feare) for banckeroute.
1601. Cornwallyes, Ess., II. xliii. (1631), 208. To be out of fashion, is to bee banquerupt.
1612. W. Parkes, Curtaine-Dr. (1876), 3. Vertue is bankerout, dares not shew his face.
b. At the end of one’s resources, exhausted.
1589. Nashe, Almond for P., 9 a. Your banquerout inuention, cleane out at the elbowes.
1591. Shaks., Two Gent., II. iv. 42. I shall make your wit bankrupt.
1623. L. Dyges, in Shaks. C. Praise. Untill our bankrout Stage be sped.
1749. Smollett, Regicide, II. v. (1777), 35. What recompence (thus bankrupt as I am!) Shall speak my grateful soul!
1775. Sheridan, Rivals, V. i. 147. I am bankrupt in gratitude!
c. Stript bare, bereft, destitute of, or now wanting in (a property or quality formerly present, or that ought to be present).
1589. Nashe, in Greene, Menaph. (Arb.), 17. Those idiots … that have made Art bankerout of her ornaments.
1651. Reliq. Wotton., 474. Yet am I not so bank-rupt of intelligence, but that I have heard of those rural passages.
1681. Dryden, Abs. & Achit., I. 168. Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease.
1848. H. Rogers, Ess., I. vi. 318. A man intellectually poverty-stricken, bank-rupt in all science and argument.
