went broke

And hello to you, bebu. Welcome to A2K, and I will try to craft an answer tomorrow. It's a bit more complicated than you might expect. May I ask where you are in the world? Thank you.

"Went broke" for "Lost all his money" is still common usage.

Confusingly, "To go for broke" means to go all out, put everything you own into the effort--and you may win.

"Went broke" is informal, idiomatic English--acceptable slang. In formal writing, "lost all his money" would be more appropriate.

"Broke" would be a noun, "broke" standing for a place of insolvency. Besides you need a noun for the verb, "went".

You might possibly make an argument for 'broke" as an adverb, but it think that reasoning is a bit specious.

Welcome to A2K.

'Went broke' is a very common idiomatic expression in English. A similar common expression is 'I am broke,' meaning I have no money. I think Noddy is probably right in saying that 'broke' here is a noun, alhtough my gut impulse would have been to label it an adverb. I'm often guilty of such specious reasoning.

Merry Andrew--

Your specious reasoning is worth much more than many ponderous expositions of impeccable logic.

Well done, Merry Andrew and Noddy. A related idiom is "gone missing" or "went missing." I heard (not for the first time) a reporter for NPR use this phrase: "(everyone's luggage) had turned up missing." It makes a certain sense of course but it always strikes me as odd phrasing.

went broke
Hallo realjohnboy,

I find this site very interesting. I am an indian and live in india. I teach as well as study english.

Happy new year

bubu

"Odd" is the right word, all right. The lugagge was either missing or it turned up. I don't see how it can be both at the same time. It's a Britishism and NPR in recent months has adopted a lot of them.