belly-up

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Slang expression for a borrower, corporation, or development project that has failed, and is unable to pay obligations to creditors. An insolvent bank or savings institution, in particular a financial institution closed down by its financial regulator, is also said to go "belly up."

A slang term used to describe the complete and abject failure of an individual, corporation, bank, development project, etc. The term belly up is often used to describe a financial institution that has failed and been closed by regulators.

Investopedia Says:
The Oxford English Dictionary records the earliest usage of the term in 1920 in the work of novelist John Dos Passos. During New York City's financial crisis in 1975, a columnist for the  Washington Post declared "If New York can go belly-up, why not any city in the nation."

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