Also 8 -sie. [f. BANKRUPT + -CY, prob. on the analogy of insolvency, but with -t erroneously retained in spelling, instead of being merged in the suffix -cy = -tie, -tia. The sense was orig. expressed by the simple bankrupt (F. la banqueroute): on the application of this to the person involved (F. le banqueroutier), the fact was successively termed bankrupting, bankruptism, bankrupture, bankruptship, and finally, c. 1700, bankruptcy.]
1. The state of being bankrupt; the fact of becoming bankrupt.
1700. J. Law, Counc. Trade (1751), Introd. 14. By wilful fraud or bankruptsie of councellors of trade.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 428, ¶ 2. That most dreadful of all human Conditions, the Case of Bankruptcy.
1753. Hanway, Trav. (1762), II. I. viii. 39. The state might thus be reduced to bankruptcy.
1776. Adam Smith, W. N., I. I. I. x. 116. Bankruptcies are most frequent in the most hazardous trades.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xviii. His bills were protested: his act of bankruptcy formal.
1875. Poste, Gaius, III. 342. Roman law never established any distinction between traders and non-traders, in other words, between bankruptcy and insolvency.
b. attrib., as Bankruptcy Court, laws, etc.
1864. Derby Merc., 7 Dec. The Bankruptcy Court officials.
1883. Law Times, 20 Oct., 408/1. The object of a bankruptcy law … should be the economical and honest distribution of a bankrupt’s estate.
2. fig. Utter wreck, ruin or loss of (any good quality).
1761. Brit. Mag., II. 441. They dread a bankruptcy of head and sense.
1797. Burke, Corr., IV. 433. A general bankruptcy of reputation in both parties.
1853. A. J. Morris, Relig. & Business, v. 104. The greatest bankruptcy is not of fortune but of faith.
