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American Dictionary of the English Language

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Insolvent


INSOLV'ENT, adjective [Latin in and solvens, solvo, to solve, to free, to pay.]

1. Not having money, goods or estate sufficient to pay all debts; as an insolvent debtor.

2. Not sufficient to pay all the debts of the owner; as an insolvent estate.

3. Respecting insolvent debtors; relieving an insolvent debtor from imprisonment for debt, or form liability to arrest and imprisonment for debts previously contracted; as an insolvent law.

Insolvent law, or act of insolvency, a law which liberates a debtor from imprisonment, or exempts him from liability to arrest and imprisonment on account of any debt previously contracted. These terms may be considered as generic, comprehending also bankrupt laws, which protect a man's future acquisitions from his creditors. But in a limited sense, as the words are now generally used, an insolvent law extends only to protect the person of the debtor form imprisonment on account of debts previously contracted.

INSOLV'ENT, noun A debtor unable to pay his debts.