figurative. To destroy the soundness of, impair, ruin; to ruin financially, render bankrupt. (Usually in passive.) Obsolete or archaic.

To ruin financially, make bankrupt (a person or bank). to break the bank: formerly also in the sense ‘to become bankrupt’.

transitive. To reduce (a person, company, etc.) to bankruptcy or extreme poverty; to cause to go bankrupt.

To ruin financially = break, v. 11. Obsolete.

to strike a docket: see quots. Obsolete.

transitive. To reduce (a person or enterprise) to insolvency; to bankrupt. Cf. to go bust phr. at bust, adj. phrases.

To render insolvent or bankrupt.