liability
[lahy-uh-bil-i-tee]
- liabilities,
- moneys owed; debts or pecuniary obligations (opposed to assets).
- Accounting.liabilities as detailed on a balance sheet, especially in relation to assets and capital.
- something disadvantageous: His lack of education is his biggest liability.
- Also li·a·ble·ness. the state or quality of being liable: liability to disease.
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Origin of liability
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for liability
Contemporary Examples
Except for in the Academy, where a low number seems to be a liability.
But will his racially charged rhetoric make him a liability instead?
And when it comes to liability litigation, as inevitably it will, Rolls Royce would seem to be off the hook.
They also have liability insurance, which helps them make payments to passengers who are harmed or killed.
So the company and its insurance policy bear no liability for what happened.
Historical Examples
Would Lord Culduff be disposed to accept his share in this liability?
The Bramleighs Of Bishop's FollyCharles James Lever
This liability to breakage is reduced, but not eliminated, by the asbestos annealing.
On Laboratory ArtsRichard Threlfall
How this liability was dispelled, will be related, with other incidents, in the next chapter.
My Bondage and My FreedomFrederick Douglass
With the liability to accident, we must see how little account is to be made of it.
Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil DisobedienceHenry David Thoreau
This early rule of law fixing their liability has been greatly changed.
Up To Date BusinessVarious
liability
- the state of being liable
- a financial obligation
- a hindrance or disadvantage
- likelihood or probability
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for liability
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
liability
An obligation or debt.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.