bad debt
9
4.1
- noun
- /bæd dɛt/
- Specialized
:
deuda incobrable
- The real downside of bad debt is the credit reporting, legal actions, and harassment.
- bad debt expense
And then they get trapped into bad debt trying to pay these expenses off.
- And then they get trapped into bad debt trying to pay these expenses off.
- And in my book, I talk about it in terms of bad debt and tolerable debt.
- Don't carry, don't carry any bad debt and be be accountable.
- Or should they invest with the money that they've got and still have the bad debt?
Examples
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Many businesses struggle with bad debt because some customers refuse to pay their bills.
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I wanted to share an honest picture of how bad debt can affect someone.
Blog text (26) -
So, yeah, bad debt is anything that I have to then pay the interest rate on.
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And so Gary, how important is it to tackle bad debt and credit?
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And then they get trapped into bad debt trying to pay these expenses off.
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Attempt to purge the bad debt from the books, which will be nearly impossible now.
Blog text (15) -
We need to liquidate the bad debt; otherwise, we're just kicking the can down the road.
Blog text (11) -
If every credit card suddenly became a bad debt, that's a trillion bucks out the door.
Blog text (32) -
All I've got are a lot of bad habits and a lot of bad debts.
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Distinguishing bad debt from charity care can be troublesome for some providers.
Academic text (1993)
How Recoverable
Surface Forms
Morphology
The phrase is a straightforward adjective + noun composition where 'bad' signals a negative quality of 'debt', so a learner who knows both words can infer it refers to problematic or uncollectible obligations. This compositional pattern and equivalent expressions exist in many languages, making the meaning predictable to a B1 learner without prior exposure.
Etymology
The term bad debt comes from old money records, where a sum that could not be collected was marked bad and the debt was treated like food that had gone bad and could no longer be used. So today bad debt means money 'unlikely to be repaid'.