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Glite Dictionary
to declare bankrupt

to declare bankrupt

1 5.4
To have a court officially say you cannot pay your debts
  • phrasal verb
  • /dɪˈklɛr ˈbæŋkrʌpt/
  • Formal
translation icon : declarar en quiebra
  • If a business cannot pay its debts, it may be declared bankrupt to protect its creditors.

Examples

  • The Republicans put Romney up against Obama to lose because they think Obama can keep the sects more peaceful when the USA defaults and is declared bankrupt by foreign supply partners who reject the US dollar and parts supplies dry up.

    Blog text (12)

  • She faced severe financial difficulties and was declared bankrupt in order to reset her financial situation.

  • A person needs to keep in mind several things when he or she is declared bankrupt.

    Blog text (15)

  • School districts and schools that don't make the grade should be declared bankrupt, taken over by the state, and reorganized.

    Academic text (1992)

  • It was promptly declared bankrupt, and the government set up an almost exact replica of Loans for Shares in reverse.

    Academic text (2011)

  • In January, when Coggins surfaced in a legal response to having been declared bankrupt, he did so from the same area, St. Clair County, Illinois.

    Academic text (2013)

  • To effectuate the financial freedom of individuals who sought bankruptcy relief, Congress designed the system to demarcate the beginning of that new life once a federal district court ordered that the individual be declared bankrupt.

    Academic text (2018)

  • Returning to federal bankruptcy law, recall that debtors had to surrender all of their property as a condition of being declared bankrupt and thus gaining the opportunity to petition for relief in the form of discharge.

    Academic text (2018)

  • He arrived back in Paris a declared bankrupt, his slide into irretrievable poverty being averted by the guidance of an admiring captain of Standard Oil named Henry Huttleston Rogers.

    Fiction book (2001)

  • After struggling with his finances for years, he was finally declared bankrupt by the court.

Synonyms

to go bankrupt
vsto declare bankrupt
73 3.5

To be unable to pay debts

is a court's formal recognition that a person cannot pay debts

Antonyms

solvent
15 5.5

Having enough money to pay debts and bills

How Delinquent

to declare bankrupt
  • Formal
1 5.4
to default on
  • Specialized
28 6.6
in arrears
  • Formal
4 7.4

Surface Forms

declare bankrupt infinitive
declared bankrupt past
declared bankrupt past participle
declaring bankrupt present participle
declares bankrupt third person singular

Morphology

declare + bankrupt

The meaning is directly derivable from the parts: 'declare' means to formally announce and 'bankrupt' means unable to pay debts, so together they mean to formally announce that someone or something is bankrupt. This is a straightforward verb + status construction common cross-linguistically and would be understandable to a B1 learner who knows both constituent words.

Etymology

Declare bankrupt comes from an old image: money lenders worked at a table called a 'bank', and if the table was broken they had no money left and were called 'bankrupt'. So to declare bankrupt is to say someone 'cannot pay their debts', and today a court can make that official.