What does “kapot” mean in Dutch?

The first thing kapot means is “broken” — a phone, a bike, a machine that no longer works. But Dutch speakers also use it for people: ik ben kapot means “I’m wrecked,” completely worn out. So a kid describing a hard race can say his legs are already kapot after the cycling, meaning they’re done in. One short word covers both a broken object and a body with nothing left.

You’ll hear it constantly in everyday speech: mijn telefoon is kapot (“my phone’s broken”) but also na het werk ben ik helemaal kapot (“after work I’m completely shattered”). It shares a root with German kaputt and English “kaput,” all traceable to French capot — a term from the card game piquet for losing every trick, a total shutout. That sense of “finished, beaten” is exactly the feeling when your legs are kapot.