Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
Wiktionary
n. (context business accounting English) A debt which cannot be recovered from the debtor, either because the debtor doesn't have the money to pay or because the debtor cannot be found and/or forced to pay.
WordNet
n. a debt that is unlikely to be repaid
Wikipedia
A bad debt is an amount owed to a creditor that is unlikely to be paid and which the creditor is not willing to take action to collect because of various reasons, for example due to a company going into liquidation or insolvency. There are various technical definitions of what constitutes a bad debt, depending on accounting conventions, regulatory treatment and the institution provisioning. In the USA, bank loans with more than ninety days' arrears become "problem loans". Accounting sources advise that the full amount of a bad debt be written off to the profit and loss account or a provision for bad debts as soon as it is foreseen.
Bad Debt is a studio album by American musician Hiss Golden Messenger. It was released in November 2010 under Black Maps Records, then reissued in January 2014 under Paradise of Bachelors with three new tracks.
Usage examples of "bad debt".
At this date, and during the four years of the Revolution, the total arrears of taxation amounted to six hundred and thirty-two millions - a bad debt that can hardly be recovered, and, in fact, it is already reduced one-half, since, even if the debtor could and was disposed to pay, he would pay in assignats, which, at this time, were at a discount of fifty per cent.
Three hundred, take it or leave it, he said, and a deed to oblivion, the deed to this place he'd been stuck with on a bad debt.
Since the time of the Piebald Prince, the scouring of the Witted has been accepted within the Six Duchies as matter-of-factly as enforced labor for bad debt or logging for thieves.
You'd be surprised how much a good accountant can save in costs and in prevention of bad debt.
I recently engaged sev- eral bounty hunters to, ah, collect a bad debt.
I recently engaged several bounty hunters to, ah, collect a bad debt.
Kreja meant nothing at Viking, having flourished only at distant Pan-paris and Esperance in its day: at Mariner, under an alias, it meant a bad debt, and the same at Russell's.