| 释义 |
▪ I. bankrupt, n.|ˈbæŋkrʌpt|
Forms: 6 banke rota, banckroupt(e, banckerout, banquerowpte, banqwerooute, 6–7 banckrout, banque-, banqrout(e, banke-, bankrout(e, bankerupt, 7 bankcrout, banck-, banquerupt, (bankrup, banker-up), 6– bankrupt.
[In 16th c. banke rota, banqueroute, a. It. banca rotta (Florio), and its F. adaptation banqueroute (in Cotgr. banqueroutte), with the second part subsequently assimilated to the equivalent L. ruptus, as in abrupt, etc. The It. banca rotta is literally ‘bank broken,’ or ‘bench broken.’ The transference of sense from the fact to the agent (in sense 2) is peculiar to Eng.: cf. bankrupt a. and med.L. ruptus.
According to Johnson ‘it is said’ that when an Italian money-changer became insolvent, ‘his bench was broke.’ But rotto, rotta is also ‘wrecked’ (used of a ship); and fig. ‘discomfited, defeated, interrupted, stopped.’ Cf. the familiar use of break = become insolvent, broken insolvent; also med.L. ruptura failure, ruptus broken man, bankrupt, ‘creditorum fraudator, aut decoctor, qui dissolvit argentariam et foro cedit’ in Du Cange, who has an example dated 1334.]
†1. The wreck or break-up of a trader's business in consequence of his failure to pay his creditors; or (in early use) his shutting up or desertion of his place of business without payment of his liabilities. Chiefly in the phrase ‘to make bankeroute’ or ‘bankrupt’ (Fr. faire banqueroute, 1536). Afterwards called bankrupting, bankruptism, bankrupture, bankruptship, and now bankruptcy, q.v. Obs.
1539State Papers Hen. VIII, I. 609 With danger to make banke rota. 1543Act 34 Hen. VIII, iv. (title) An Act against suche parsons as do make bankrupt. 1562W. Bullein Bk. Simples in Babees Bk. (1868) 241 Vtterly vndone, and cast either into miserable pouertie, prisonment, bankeroute, &c. 1663Gerbier Counsel E j b, Trade strengthned, encreased, and many Bankrouts prevented. 1684Lond. Gaz. No. 1980/4 Empowered by the Commissioners of Bankrupt. 1712Arbuthnot John Bull (1755) 35 A statute of bankrupt.
2. A merchant, trader, or other person, whose property and effects, on his becoming insolvent, are administered and distributed for the benefit of all his creditors, under that system of statutory regulations called the Bankrupt or Bankruptcy Laws. As these laws (which began in England with Acts 34 and 35 Henry VIII, c. 4) were originally directed against fraudulent traders, who absconded with the property of their creditors, or eluded the attempts of creditors to get at them, the earlier senses were:
†a. in Law. ‘A trader who secretes himself, or does certain other acts tending to defraud his creditors.’ Blackstone.
†b. popularly. One who has brought himself into debt by reckless expenditure or riotous living; a fugitive from his creditors, a broken man in sanctuary or outlawry. (In these senses the bankrupt was a criminal.)
1533More Apol. xxi. Wks. 881/2 Suche bancke rouptes..which whan they haue wasted and missespent their own, woulde than be very faine.. robbe spirituall and temporall to. 1548Hall Chron. Hen. VII an. 11. 37 Some Banqueroutes, some false Englyshe sanctuary men, some Theues. 1580Baret Alv. B 140 One that hath riotously wasted his substance, a banqueroute, Decoctor. 1593R. Harvey Philad., By gathering more bankrupts & ruffians to his side. 1613R. C. Table Alph., Bankerupt, bankrout, waster. 1614Raleigh Hist. World iv. vii. §1. 533 Upon instigation of some desperate bankrouts..they made an uproar. 1678Marvell Corr. 358 Wks. II. 628 A Generall Bill..to find a more effectuall way for discovering of the Estates of Bankroutes. 1709Steele Tatler No. 44 ⁋6 He can no more live here than if he were a downright Bankrupt.
By gradual extension of sense, and modifications of the statutes of bankruptcy:
†c. in Law. Also, a trader, who did certain acts which had the effect of defeating his creditors of their property, without reference to any intention on his part.
d. in Mod. Law. Any trader or other person insolvent, who, on the petition of a creditor or creditors, or on his own petition, to the Bankruptcy Court, is declared or adjudged bankrupt, and his estates administered as stated above.
Formerly only a trader could be made a bankrupt; other persons became insolvent; in U.S. the legal distinction between the two was abolished in 1841, and in England in 1869; it had long before disappeared in popular use.
1707Lond. Gaz. No. 4335/4 A Commission of Bankrupt being awarded against John Oliver..and he being declared a Bankrupt. 1718Free-thinker No. 86. 215 A Friend of mine..had lately the Misfortune to become a Bankrupt. 1869Act 32–3 Victoria lxxi. 76 A single creditor..of not less than fifty pounds, may present a petition to the Court, praying that the debtor be adjudged a bankrupt.
e. popularly. An insolvent debtor; one who is unable to meet his liabilities, whether he is in the Bankruptcy Court or not.
1580Sidney Arcadia vi. 503 Shall my meanes help to make up a bankrout in his estate. 1596Shakes. Merch. V. iv. i. 122 To cut the forfeiture from that bankrout there.
† f. to play the bankrupt: to become insolvent, to fail to pay one's debts; often, to play false with the money of others, and fig. to prove false to a trust of any kind. Obs.
1577Holinshed Chron. III. 812/2 Jerome Bonuise, which had plaied bankerupt, and was conueied out of the realme for debt. 1580Ord. Prayer in Liturg. Serv. Q. Eliz. (1847) 573 Till he have gotten great sums of money in his hand, that he may play the Bankeroute, to the undoing of such as trust him. 1614Sylvester Bethulia iii. 70 And with th' Almighty playing banque-rout, With greater Rage his law they persecute. 1623Bacon Wks. (1834) XII. 448 These modern languages will, at one time or other, play the bank⁓rupts with books. 1643Horn & Rob. Gate Lang. Unl. §865 Hee is constrained to breake (play the bankrout), and to borrow of one and pay another. c1660J. Harington Epigr. in Singer Hist. Playing Cards 254 The last game now in use is Bankerout, Which will be plaid at still, I stand in doubt, Until Lavolta turn the wheel of time.
3. transf. One hopelessly in debt; one who has lost all his means, and is without resources.
1586T. B. La Primaud. Fr. Acad. (1594) 206 Perceiving themselves to be brought to the estate of bankrupts, as we commonly saie. 1594Drayton Idea 41 All is Thine which hath been due to Me, And I a Bankrupt, quite undone by Thee. 1600C'tess Essex in Ellis Orig. Lett. i. 237 III. 57 To recken my self a bankcrout till I have yeelded you some demonstrative testimonie. c1620Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 49 He who in sloath doth like a Dor-Mouse sleepe, Shall at the last sure prove a Banker-up.
b. fig. (Cf. bankrupt a. 2.)
1579Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 141 Not onely unthrifts of their money but banckerouts of good manners.
4. attrib., as in bankrupt laws, bankrupt system; also bankruptlike adj.
1668Rolle Abridgem. I. 47 Thou art a bankruptlike knave. 1809R. Langford Introd. Trade 116 The bankrupt laws in England do not extend to Scotland.
▪ II. ˈbankrupt, v.
Forms: 6 banckerowt-en, 6–7 banke-, bankrout(e, banquerout, 7 banckroute, bankerupt, -rumpt.
[App. f. the n. (in sense 1); orig. short for ‘to make bankrupt’: the trans. sense is later, and perh. favoured by the analogy of disrupt, etc. Not in It. or Fr.]
†1. To become bankrupt, to fail, to ‘break’; = the early phrase ‘to make bankrupt.’ (Often in the sense of fraudulent failure: see bankrupt n. 1.)
1552Huloet, Banckerowten, or make banckerowte, or banckrupte. 1570Levins Manip. /229 To bankerout, fidem fallere. 1608Chapman Byron's Conspir. Plays 1873 II. 234 He that winnes Empire with the losse of faith, Out-buies it: and will banck-route. 1689[see bankrupting vbl. n.].
2. trans. To make or render (any one) bankrupt; to make insolvent.
1616Beaum. & Fl. Laws Candy iii. i, He..will be bank⁓rupted so much the sooner. 1650Weldon Crt. & Char. Jas. I, 58 If they had already impoverished the Kingdome; by the union, they would bankerupt it. 1865Times 31 July, There is some fear of bankrupting the Treasury. 1881Daily News 17 Sept. 20/7 A bad season or two inevitably bankrupts the tenant.
†3. To reduce to beggary, beggar, exhaust the resources of. lit. and fig. Obs.
1588Shakes. L.L.L. i. i. 27 Make rich the ribs, but bankerout the wits. 1593Nashe Christ's T. (1613) 64, I should bankroute them all in description. 1650Fuller Pisgah ii. ix. §44 Seven hundred Queens..were able to bankrupt the Land of Ophir. a1659Cleveland On a Fly 16 In this single Death of thee Th' hast bankrupt all Antiquity. c1700Gentl. Instruct. (1732) 480 He is bankrupted of Patience, Money and Grace. 1748Richardson Clarissa (1811) VII. 258 Art thou sure that the making good of such a vow will not totally bankrupt thee?
▪ III. ˈbankrupt, a.
Forms: 6–7 bankerupt, bancke-, banquerout(e, banke-, bankrout, 7 banckrowt, -rout, -rupt, banquerupt, 6– bankrupt.
[Connected in origin with the n. 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 n. 2.
1570Levins Manip. /228 Bankerout, fidifragus, ære alieno oppressus. 1580Baret Alv. B 139 He is banqueroute, Il est faict banqueroupte. 1592No-body & Some-b. (1878) 283 To make that Nobody bankrout, make him flie His Country, and be never heard of more. 1631R. Knevet Rhodon & I. ii. iii, A bankrupt Tenant..That flyes by night from an unprofitable Farme. 1710Pol. Ballads (1860) 73 The bankrupt nation to restore, And pay the millions lent. 1848Thackeray 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.
1566T. Stapleton Ret. Untr. Jewel, For farder Credit off your Worde, you will stande (I feare) for banckeroute. 1601Cornwallyes Ess. ii. xliii. (1631) 208 To be out of fashion, is to bee banquerupt. 1612W. Parkes Curtaine-Dr. (1876) 3 Vertue is bankerout, dares not shew his face.
b. At the end of one's resources, exhausted.
1589Nashe Almond for P. 9 a, Your banquerout inuention, cleane out at the elbowes. 1591Shakes. Two Gent. ii. iv. 42, I shall make your wit bankrupt. 1623L. Dyges in Shaks. C. Praise, Untill our bankrout Stage be sped. 1749Smollett Regicide ii. v. (1777) 35 What recompence (thus bankrupt as I am!) Shall speak my grateful soul! 1775Sheridan 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).
1589Nashe in Greene Menaph. (Arb.) 17 Those idiots..that have made Art bankerout of her ornaments. 1651Reliq. Wotton. 474 Yet am I not so bank-rupt of intelligence, but that I have heard of those rural passages. 1681Dryden Abs. & Achit. i. 168 Bankrupt of life, yet prodigal of ease. 1848H. Rogers Ess. I. vi. 318 A man intellectually poverty-stricken, bank-rupt in all science and argument. |