liquidate
Americanverb (used with object)
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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)
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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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
Night
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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:
Just days after Sony announced it would be killing off its physical videogame discs by 2028 in favor of digital-only alternatives, one player raced to liquidate his collection.
From MarketWatch ● 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
You would have to liquidate a bigger portion of your portfolio to withdraw the prescribed amount.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 23, 2026
If the airline moves to liquidate, other airlines will likely look to backfill capacity, as they have in the past.
From Barron's ● May 1, 2026
I had asked my father to sell everything, to liquidate everything, and to leave.
From "Night" by Elie Wiesel
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
"C" deposits "B's" check with The Bank and hereby liquidates his $10,000 indebtedness to The Bank.
From Frenzied Finance Vol. 1: The Crime of Amalgamated by Lawson, Thomas William
A $250,000 traditional IRA inherited by two adult children is liquidated at their marginal brackets across a decade.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 17, 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
Aspiration subsequently filed for bankruptcy and liquidated all of its assets by July.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 2, 2026
The bondholders may wind up owning the bankrupt company if it is reorganized, or could get back some of their investment if the company is liquidated, while the stockholders would get nothing.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 2, 2026
Eventually, UBS liquidated all of his assets and transferred them to Landsbanki in Reykjavik.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
“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
The transition will start on Friday and involve liquidating 30% of The Container Store’s categories and products.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2026
Spirit Airlines is in danger of liquidating, its planned emergence from bankruptcy in flux due to the spike in jet-fuel prices.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 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.
