insolventadj.n.

a1626 J. Horsey Relacion Trav. in E. A. Bond Russia at Close of 16th Cent. (1856) 246 The..merchants tradinge those countries..became insolvent.

1662 W. Petty Treat. Taxes 57 Why should not insolvent thieves be rather punished with slavery than death?

1781 E. Gibbon Decline & Fall II. xvii. 71 The cruel treatment of the insolvent debtors of the state.

1817 Ld. Ellenborough in Maule & Selwyn's Rep. VI. 316 When he knew himself insolvent, and when ruin and bankruptcy were staring him in the face.

1871 W. Markby Elem. Law §548 A man may owe more than he is worth, and therefore if a money value is set on his collective legal relations he may be what is called insolvent.

1883 Law Times 20 Oct. 409/1 The proceedings connected with the management, in insolvent estates.

1667 Ormonde MSS. in 10th Rep. Royal Comm. Hist. MSS (1885) App. v. 45 Your petitioner received assignments for part of six moneths' pay for the said troop, part of which assignments proved insolvent.

1728 E. Young Love of Fame: Universal Passion (ed. 2) v. 400 How will the miser startle, to be told Of such a wonder, as insolvent gold?

1837 H. Martineau Society in Amer. II. 365 In Philadelphia, from six to eight hundred persons annually take the benefit of the insolvent laws.

1843 W. M. Thackeray Ravenswing i, in Fraser's Mag. Apr. 468/1 He had been through the Insolvent Court.

1853 T. I. Wharton Digest Cases Pennsylvania II. 19 A debtor who has no property whatever is nevertheless entitled to the benefit of the insolvent laws.

1725 I. Watts Logick i. vi. 131 An Insolvent is a Man that cannot pay his Debts.

1767 T. Hutchinson Hist. Province Massachusets-Bay, 1691–1750 i. 65 Creditors of a deceased insolvent shall be paid their full debts.

1883 Wharton's Law-lexicon (ed. 7) An insolvent as distinguished from a bankrupt, was an insolvent who was not a trader; for originally only a trader could be made bankrupt, in the sense of obtaining an absolute discharge from his debts, while the future estate of an insolvent remained liable for his debts, even after his discharge.