liquidate
[lik-wi-deyt]
- to settle or pay (a debt): to liquidate a claim.
- to reduce (accounts) to order; determine the amount of (indebtedness or damages).
- to convert (inventory, securities, or other assets) into cash.
- to get rid of, especially by killing: to liquidate the enemies of the regime.
- to break up or do away with: to liquidate a partnership.
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- to liquidate debts or accounts; go into liquidation.
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Origin of liquidate
Synonyms
See more synonyms for liquidate on Thesaurus.com1. discharge, clear, erase, cancel.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for liquidate
Contemporary Examples
“Economic diversity,” by contrast, brings economic difference into higher education in order to liquidate the difference.
It is not enough to liquidate the most brutal forms of power and tell people they are now free.
When a business runs into this sort of problem, we know what to do: liquidate and sell off the non-performing assets.
As workers went on strike and the company threatened to liquidate, Hostess was essentially crippled.
Stockman both predicts imminent raging inflation and urges investors to liquidate their investors and hide in cash.
Historical Examples
Where did you obtain the money that you applied to liquidate, or partially to liquidate, your debts?
The ChanningsMrs. Henry Wood
Which the same being the case, I invite all to come forward and liquidate.
A Waif of the MountainsEdward S. Ellis
His throat was dry and he proposed to liquidate his unusual exertion.
The Fighting EdgeWilliam MacLeod Raine
Now, my love, duty requires that I should at once begin to liquidate.
Under the WavesR M Ballantyne
There was only one thing to do—root them out, liquidate them.
EmpireClifford Donald Simak
liquidate
- to settle or pay off (a debt, claim, etc)
- to determine by litigation or agreement the amount of (damages, indebtedness, etc)
- to terminate the operations of (a commercial firm, bankrupt estate, etc) by assessment of liabilities and appropriation of assets for their settlement
- (of a commercial firm, etc) to terminate operations in this manner
- (tr) to convert (assets) into cash
- (tr) to eliminate or kill
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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 liquidate
v.
1570s, "to reduce to order, to set out clearly" (of accounts), from Late Latin or Medieval Latin liquidatus, past participle of liquidare "to melt, make liquid or clear, clarify," from Latin liquidus (see liquid). Sense of "clear away" (a debt) first recorded 1755. The meaning "wipe out, kill" is from 1924, possibly from Russian likvidirovat. Related: Liquidated; liquidating.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper