If a company is in receivership, it cannot pay what it owes, so the law puts a special official — a receiver — in charge. The old bosses lose control. The receiver takes the company’s buildings, machines, and money, and uses them (often by selling them) to pay the bank and the other people waiting for their money. You meet this word in British news and in legal writing. American papers more often say a company is in bankruptcy, or that a court has put a receiver in charge. Though actually, receivership is not simply “the company is dead.” Bankruptcy is a wider legal process; receivership means this one thing: an official now holds the keys. Sometimes the receiver keeps the business running for a while; sometimes they shut it down. Either way, it is a grave sign that the company has failed to pay its debts.