foreclose
Americanverb (used with object)
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Law.
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to deprive (a mortgagor or pledgor) of the right to redeem their property, especially on failure to make payment on a mortgage when due, ownership of property then passing to the mortgagee.
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to take away the right to redeem (a mortgage or pledge).
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to shut out; exclude; bar.
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to hinder or prevent, as from doing something.
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to establish an exclusive claim to.
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to close, settle, or answer beforehand.
verb (used without object)
verb
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law to deprive (a mortgagor, etc) of the right to redeem (a mortgage or pledge)
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(tr) to shut out; bar
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(tr) to prevent or hinder
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(tr) to answer or settle (an obligation, promise, etc) in advance
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(tr) to make an exclusive claim to
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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foreclosesimple
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foreclosessimple
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have foreclosedperfect
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has foreclosedperfect
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are foreclosingprogressive
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am foreclosingprogressive
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is foreclosingprogressive
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have been foreclosingperfect progressive
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has been foreclosingperfect progressive
Past
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foreclosedsimple
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had foreclosedperfect
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was foreclosingprogressive
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were foreclosingprogressive
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had been foreclosingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of foreclose
First recorded 1250–1300; Middle English foreclosen from Old French forclos, past participle of forclore “to exclude,” equivalent to for- “out” + clore “to shut” (from Latin claudere )
Explanation
To foreclose is to prevent something from happening. If you want to foreclose any possibility of getting in a car accident, you should travel by train instead. Foreclose comes from the Old French forclore, "exclude or shut out," which led to its sense of "bar from happening," and also the legal meaning, "bar someone from redeeming a mortgage." If a bank forecloses on a property, they take it away from the person who lives there. This typically happens once the homeowner has missed several payments on their mortgage, the money they owe after borrowing from the bank.
Vocabulary lists containing foreclose
Case Closed: Clud, Clus
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The Wishing Spell
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Ghost Squad
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
IRS, Like Everyone Else, Can’t Foreclose FCC License Not even the federal government has the right to foreclose a broadcast license granted by the Federal Communications Commission, U.S.
From BusinessWeek • Oct. 4, 2011
"You are in default," the bank wrote in an April 2 Notice of Intent to Foreclose that arrived while the family was in Minnesota.
From Washington Post • Sep. 17, 2010
Foreclose, fōr-klōz′, v.t. to preclude: to prevent: to stop.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
Foreclose the coming of surprise: Stand where Posterity shall stand; Stand where the Ancients stood before, And, dipping in lone founts thy hand, Drink of the never-varying lore: Wise once, and wise thence evermore.
From John Marr and Other Poems by Melville, Herman
Foreclose with all promptitude was their word, and foreclose they did.
From Scattergood Baines by Kelland, Clarence Budington
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
