liquidate
Americanverb (used with object)
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liquidates,
present (3rd person singular)
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liquidated,
past participle, past
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liquidating
present participle
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to settle or pay (a debt).
to liquidate a claim.
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to reduce (accounts) to order; determine the amount of (indebtedness or damages).
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to convert (inventory, securities, or other assets) into cash.
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to get rid of, especially by killing.
to liquidate the enemies of the regime.
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to break up or do away with.
to liquidate a partnership.
verb (used without object)
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liquidates,
present (3rd person singular)
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liquidated,
past participle, past
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liquidating
present participle
verb
-
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to settle or pay off (a debt, claim, etc)
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to determine by litigation or agreement the amount of (damages, indebtedness, etc)
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-
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to terminate the operations of (a commercial firm, bankrupt estate, etc) by assessment of liabilities and appropriation of assets for their settlement
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(of a commercial firm, etc) to terminate operations in this manner
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(tr) to convert (assets) into cash
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(tr) to eliminate or kill
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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reliquidateverb
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preliquidateverb (used with object)
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nonliquidatingadjective
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unliquidatedadjective
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unliquidatingadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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liquidatesimple
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liquidatessimple
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have liquidatedperfect
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has liquidatedperfect
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am liquidatingprogressive
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are liquidatingprogressive
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is liquidatingprogressive
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have been liquidatingperfect progressive
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has been liquidatingperfect progressive
Past
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liquidatedsimple
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had liquidatedperfect
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was liquidatingprogressive
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were liquidatingprogressive
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had been liquidatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of liquidate
1565–75; 1920–25 liquidate for def. 4; < Late Latin liquidātus, past participle of liquidāre to melt, make clear. See liquid, -ate 1
Explanation
If you liquidate something, you get rid of it. When a huge retailer has to close all of its stores, it liquidates everything, meaning the inventory and even the shelves and display cases are sold to bargain-hunters, to raise money for the company to pay its debts. Liquidate comes from the Latin liquidare, meaning “to melt,” or “to clarify.” A recipe might ask you to liquefy the butter, not liquidate it, because liquidate has to do with assets. To liquidate is to convert stocks or goods into cash by selling them, to finish business neatly, and to clear debts. If you liquidate your old baseball card collection, you will have money to put in your college fund.
Vocabulary lists containing liquidate
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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.
See Examples For:
CEO Jason Hollar leads a wave of insider selling that saw top executives liquidate nearly $60 million worth of company stock.
From Barron's ● Aug. 22, 2026
For example, if taxes effectively cost you $20,000, you’d need to liquidate $120,000, which at 7% could have grown to roughly $464,000 over the next two decades.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 13, 2026
Blue Owl opted to cap redemptions in both funds at 5%, a built-in feature intended to prevent having to liquidate the fund’s hard-to-sell corporate loans to meet withdrawals.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
That’s fair because those investors can liquidate those holdings if they choose to, or have to.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 1, 2026
Her only relative was a niece in Boston, who arranged for a local lawyer to liquidate Mrs. Garner’s property.
From "The Underground Railroad: A Novel" by Colson Whitehead
If Spirit liquidates, other airlines, including Frontier, JetBlue, and United, are expected to backfill its markets and acquire assets.
From Barron's ● May 1, 2026
If the loan-to-value ratio exceeds 80%, Ledn automatically liquidates the bitcoin to pay off the loans, giving any leftover proceeds back to the borrower.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 10, 2026
If the company liquidates, all shareholders — including those who bought in at very high prices — would be paid about $10 a share.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 6, 2022
Rah8 liquidates to a winning endgame in which the outside passed a-pawn will spell Black’s doom.
From Washington Times ● Mar. 1, 2022
SUN A yellow arrival from Way Down East, who goes west daily, operates a heating and lighting trust, draws water, prints pictures, develops crops, liquidates the ice business and tans skins on the side.
From The Foolish Dictionary An exhausting work of reference to un-certain English words, their origin, meaning, legitimate and illegitimate use, confused by a few pictures [not included] by Gideon Wurdz
Last fall, a federal bankruptcy judge ordered the network liquidated, finding evidence that McGraw deleted text messages to conceal plans favoring certain creditors over others.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 21, 2026
According to brokerage statements viewed by MarketWatch, smellyfingernail liquidated his Roth IRA holdings last Tuesday and plowed the money into 1,478 shares of SpaceX at $211 apiece.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 23, 2026
They believe that if the company were completely liquidated and broken up it could yield a value of 7 to 8 pounds per share, above its current market price.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 3, 2026
Typically investors sizing up builders compare price to book value, which measures what a company would be worth if liquidated.
From Barron's ● Jun. 1, 2026
Eventually, UBS liquidated all of his assets and transferred them to Landsbanki in Reykjavik.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Japanese officials have indicated they will use the program to raise the dollars they sell for yen without liquidating the Treasury portfolio that would otherwise pay for the intervention.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 4, 2026
First, how does the family fund long-term care without liquidating the retirement assets that are anchoring the financial plan?
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 2026
“We’re seeing the direct translation of AI-generated wealth into housing demand—AI workers are liquidating equity at an unprecedented scale and deploying that capital into the housing market.”
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 8, 2026
While the automakers aren’t currently liquidating, they are operating on a margin-over-volume strategy that has pushed the average transaction price of a new car to a record $50,000.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 12, 2026
Although he was convinced at that time of the urgency of liquidating the Conservative regime, the plot horrified him.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
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.
