Does deficit have an adjectival form? If my business loses a lot of money, can I say that I 'got a deficit', that my business is 'in a deficit', or that my business suffered 'a deficit'?
Is there a common way to express the concept of deficit adjectivally?
If by deficit you mean your expenses are greater than your income (or your liabilities are growing faster than your assets), I would say your business is loss-making, unprofitable, or profitless (among adjectives).
If it continues to lose money, it will be ultimately be unsuccessful, because the success of a business is measured by its profits.
I do not believe deficit, at least in the financial sense, has a common adjective form. In speaking of government spending deficits, for example, we usually hear compounds such as deficit-related or deficit-oriented.
As Peter Shor comments, the standard adjectival form for deficit is deficient. But OP may be thinking of...
My business is in deficit. (no 'a')
...which a quick check on Google Books reveals to be less common than I'd expected. Lots of other things can be in deficit, but apparently they're mostly budgets, accounts, and balances.
I have no problem with "My business is in deficit" meaning "My business is losing/has lost money", "...is trading in the red", "...is running at a loss", etc. Luckily, I'm not a businessman!
I believe deficient may well be the correct term. When a business is in deficit (without further explanation), that specifically refers to profits. If I am in deficit, my profits are deficient.
