bailout
bailout Lexical Profile
bailout Game Scores & Validity
• noun
An act of giving financial assistance to a failing business, bank, or economy to save it from collapse or bankruptcy.
"The central bank approved an emergency bailout to prevent the struggling airline from declaring bankruptcy."
An emergency parachute jump or ejection from an aircraft in flight.
"The test pilot executed a successful bailout moments before the prototype aircraft lost altitude."
Word Nuance & Usage
The closed compound "bailout" is always a noun or attributive modifier (as in "a bailout package"), whereas the open two-word phrase "bail out" functions strictly as a phrasal verb (as in "the government decided to bail out the failing banks").
• Rhymes for bailout
Word Origin & Etymology
Coined in the 1930s from the phrasal verb "bail out," originally referring to an aviator jumping with a parachute from an aircraft, and extended by the 1960s to financial rescues by analogy with bailing water out of a sinking boat.