liquidate
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈlɪkwɪdeɪt/
ipa: /ˈlɪkwəˌdeɪt/
Forms: form: liquidates
form: liquidating
form: liquidated
form: liquidated
Etymology: Learned borrowing from Late Latin liquidātus (“liquid; clear”, adjective) + English -ate (suffix forming verbs, and forming adjectives with the sense ‘characterized by [the specified things]’). Liquidātus is the perfect passive participle of liquidō (“to turn into a liquid, melt; to make clear”), from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid; clear, transparent”) + -ō (suffix forming regular first-conjugation verbs); while liquidus is from liqueō (“to be fluid or liquid; to be clear or transparent”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *wleykʷ- (“to make wet; moist”)) + -idus (suffix meaning ‘tending to’ forming adjectives). By surface analysis, liquid (adjective) + -ate.
Sense 1.2.3 (“to kill; to abolish or eliminate”) is a semantic loan from Russian ликвиди́ровать (likvidírovatʹ); while sense 1.2.4 and sense 2 (business-related senses) were influenced by French liquider and Italian liquidare, all ultimately from Latin liquidus (see above).
Senses: examples: text: The Para rubber is of very fine quality, […] whilst the Ceara, a very inferior quality, often passes through a species of decomposition before arriving in this country, the heat of the ship's hold being sufficient to partially liquidate its substance.
ref: 1862 April 2 (date delivered), Frederick Walton, “On the Introduction and Use of Elastic Gums and Analogous Substances”, in Journal of the Society of Arts, […], volume X, number 489, London: […] [F]or the [Royal] Society [of Arts] by Bell and Daldy, […], published 4 April 1862, →OCLC, page 324, column 2:
glosses: Synonym of liquefy (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize.
synonyms: word: liquefy
extra: (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize
glosses: To make (a sound) less harsh.
examples: text: A Drunkard is a Creature God ne're made, / The Species Man, the Nature retrograde, / […] / Thoſe damn themſelves to heap an ill-got Store, / Theſe liquidate their VVealth, and covet to be poor.
ref: 1702, [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, in Reformation of Manners, a Satyr, [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 38:
glosses: To use up (money or other assets) wastefully; to dissipate, to squander, to waste.
examples: text: State farms in Southern Russia, in the Caucasus and in Siberia, have proved a failure, and a change in policy has been in progress. […] Now the State farms are being liquidated. Several hundred have been broken up and 4,000,000 acres of land distributed among the collective farms. A Riga correspondent says that the collective farmers must pay for the stock, implements, machinery and buildings for which the State allows a few years' credit, "but apparently the land itself is received gratis with the laborers hitherto employed on it, who become additional shareholders of the collective farms to which they are allotted."
ref: 1936 October 27, “Liqudating state farms”, in The Daily Colonist, number 272, Victoria, B.C.: The Colonial Printing and Publishing Company, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 4, column 2:
text: The process which, if not checked, will abolish Man, goes on apace among Communists and Democrats no less than among Fascists. […] Once we killed bad men: now we liquidate unsocial elements.
ref: 1943, C[live] S[taples] Lewis, “The Abolition of Man”, in The Abolition of Man […], New York, N.Y.: The Macmillan Company, published 1947, →OCLC, page 46:
text: It seems that this woman had kept a detailed journal of her deep devotion to her woman friend. The problem she posed to Ann [Landers; pseudonym of Eppie Lederer] was: "Should I destroy the journal?" Ann's answer to this question was: "Put a match to it.["] […] Ann assumes that homosexual thoughts and experiences are evil and, if possible, they should be liquidated from consciousness. It is appalling that Ann is allowed to give out such advice!
ref: 1976 April 17, Robert Davis, “Letters: Anngered”, in Neil Miller, editor, G[ay] C[ommunity] N[ews]: The Gay Weekly, volume 3, number 42, Boston, Mass.: GCN, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 5, column 4:
text: "The first step in liquidating a people," said [Milan] Hubl, "is to erase its memory. Destroy its books, its culture, its history. Then have someone write new books, manufacture a new culture, invent a new history. Before long the nation will begin to forget what it is and what it was. The world around it will forget even faster."
ref: 1980, Milan Kundera, chapter 4, in Michael Henry Heim, transl., edited by Philip Roth, The Book of Laughter and Forgetting […] (Writers from the Other Europe), Harmondsworth, Middlesex [London]: Penguin Books, published 1981, →ISBN, part 6 (The Angels), page 161:
synonyms: word: annihilate
word: bag
word: baptize
word: bereave of life
word: blight
word: bring down
word: bump off
word: bury
word: cack
word: compromised to a permanent end
word: croak
word: crush
word: dash
word: deactivate
word: dead
word: demolish
word: destroy
word: dispatch
word: dispose of
word: do
word: do in
word: dust
word: eliminate
word: end
word: eradicate
word: ex
word: exterminate
word: finish
word: finish off
word: flatten
word: grease
word: knock off
word: lay waste to
word: make away with
word: mortify
word: neutralize
word: obliterate
word: off
word: pay off
word: pick off
word: polish off
word: pop off
word: punch someone's ticket
word: put an end to
word: put down
word: put someone out of their misery
word: put six feet under
word: put to sleep
word: ravage
word: rub out
word: ruin
word: scotch
word: scupper
word: scuttle
word: send to eternity
word: send to hell
word: send to the grave
word: send to the great beyond
word: send to the next life
word: slay
word: slaughter
word: smash
word: smite
word: snuff
word: squash
word: stiff
word: stop someone's clock
word: take
word: terminate
word: terminate with extreme prejudice
word: top off
word: top
word: torpedo
word: take care of
word: take down
word: take out
word: waste
word: wax
word: wet
word: whack
word: wipe out
word: wreck
word: stamp out
word: wipe out
word: destroy
word: annihilate
word: aerosolize
word: atomize
word: benothing
word: bewreck
word: blot out
word: blotto
word: dash
word: decompose
word: demolish
word: desolate
word: devastate
word: diffuse
word: disintegrate
word: disperse
word: dissolve
word: eliminate
word: eradicate
word: erase
word: exterminate
word: extinguish
word: extirpate
word: fuck
word: harry
word: jazz
word: lay waste
word: level
word: liquidate
word: nuke
word: obliterate
word: pull down
word: pulverize
word: race
word: raze
word: ravage
word: remove
word: ruin
word: stamp out
word: total
word: unbreed
word: unexist
word: unmake
word: uproot
word: waste
word: wipe out
word: wipe off
word: wreck
antonyms: word: destroy
glosses: To kill (someone), usually violently, and especially for some ideological or political aim; to assassinate, to murder; also, to abolish or eliminate (something); to do away with, to put an end to.
examples: text: How far progress has been made in liquidating the locomotive stock of the old companies may be judged from the shrinkage in their numbers, by some 50 per cent. at the end of 1931, to about 35 per cent. in 1938.
ref: 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 161:
text: Her only relative was a niece in Boston, who arranged for a local lawyer to liquidate Mrs. Garner’s property.
ref: 2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad […], New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 46:
topics: business
commerce
commercial
finance
law
glosses: To convert (assets) into cash; to encash, to realize, to redeem.
examples: text: The excess of the former amount over the latter constitutes of course a debt due by this Company to the banking company, the settlement of which has engaged the earnest attention of the Board. Their wish was to liquidate that amount by the proceeds of sales of property; but the unfavourable state of the colony has prevented their doing more than effecting a reduction of the debt by a payment to account.
ref: 1844 June 29, “Summary of the Eighth Report of the South Australian Company”, in The Colonial Gazette: A Weekly Journal, volume VI, number 292, London: William Holme […], →OCLC, page 413, column 2:
text: Defence could not be merely passive: assistance must be given to Mülhausen to liquidate outstanding debts, while Sigismund [Archduke of Austria] was open to receive offers, within the limits of the treaty of St. Omer, to redeem some or all of the territories he had pledged.
ref: 1952 July, E[dgar] Bonjour, H[ilary] S[eton] Offler, G[eorge] R[ichard] Potter, “The Heroic Age”, in A Short History of Switzerland, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, published August 1952, →OCLC, page 126:
topics: business
commerce
commercial
finance
law
glosses: To settle (a debt) by paying the outstanding amount; to pay off.
topics: business
commerce
commercial
finance
law
glosses: To settle the financial affairs of (a corporation, partnership, or other business) with the aim of ceasing operations, by determining liabilities, using assets to pay debts, and apportioning the remaining assets if any; to wind up.
examples: text: [T]he King vvas obliged to qualify his grant, by eſtabliſhing betvveen the contending parties a rotation of ſeniority, each to take place alternately for a year, the ſurvivor to precede for his life the heir of the other, and ſo in perpetuum. A ſenſeleſs jumble, ſoon liquidated by a more egregious act of folly, the King vvith his ovvn hand crovvning the young Duke of VVarvvick King of the Iſle of VVight— […]
ref: 1762, Horace Walpole, “State of Painting from the Reign of Henry III. to the End of Henry VI.”, in Anecdotes of Painting in England; […], volume I, London: […] Thomas Farmer […], →OCLC, pages 39–40:
text: The beſt ideas vve can obtain of ſuch pains and pleaſures are altogether unliquidated in point of quality. In vvhat other reſpects our ideas of them may be liquidated vvill be conſidered in another place.
ref: 1780, Jeremy Bentham, “Of the Four [Sanctions] or Sources of Pain and Pleasure”, in An Introduction to the Principles of Morals and Legislation. […], London: […] T[homas] Payne, and Son, […], published 1789, →OCLC, section X, page xxiv:
text: It not uncommonly happens, that there are tvvo ſtatutes exiſting at one time, claſhing in vvhole or in part vvith each other, and neither of them containing any repealing clauſe or expreſſion. In ſuch a caſe, it is the province of the courts to liquidate and fix their meaning and operation: So far as they can by any fair conſtruction be reconciled to each other; […]
ref: 1788, Publius [pseudonym; Alexander Hamilton], “Number LXXVIII. A View of the Constitution of the Judicial Department, in Relation to the Tenure of Good Behaviour.”, in The Federalist: A Collection of Essays, Written in Favour of the New Constitution, […] , volume II, New York, N.Y.: […] J. and A. M‘Lean, […], →OCLC, page 294:
glosses: To make (something) clear and intelligible.
examples: text: [R]eturn to thy maſter, and tell him, e'er vve liquidate our differences by the ſvvord, Manfred vvould hold ſome converſe vvith him.
ref: 1764 December 24 (indicated as 1765), Onuphrio Muralto, translated by William Marshal [pseudonyms; Horace Walpole], chapter III, in The Castle of Otranto, […], London: […] Tho[mas] Lownds […], →OCLC, page 93:
glosses: To make (something) clear and intelligible.
To resolve or settle (differences, disputes, etc.).
examples: text: All theſe Diſadvantages, vvith many others, vve vvere forced to lay before Sir Richard Steele, and farther to remonſtrate to him, that as he novv ſtood in [William] Collier’s Place, his Penſion of 700l. vvas liable to the ſame Conditions, that Collier had receiv’d it upon; vvhich vvere, that it ſhould be only payable during our being the only Company permitted to act, but in caſe another ſhould be ſet up againſt us, that then this Penſion vvas to be liquidated into an equal Share vvith us; and vvhich vve novv hoped he vvould be contented vvith.
ref: 1740, Colley Cibber, chapter XV, in An Apology for the Life of Mr. Colley Cibber, […], London: […] John Watts for the author, →OCLC, pages 294–295:
text: In your laſt letter, of the 7th, you accuſe me, moſt unjuſtly, of being in arrears in my correſpondence; vvhereas, if our epiſtolary accounts vvere fairly liquidated, I believe you vvould be brought in conſiderably debtor.
ref: 1759 February 27 (date written), Philip Dormer Stanhope, [4th] Earl of Chesterfield, “Letter CXXVIII”, in Letters Written by the Late Right Honourable Philip Dormer Stanhope, Earl of Chesterfield, to His Son, Philip Stanhope, Esq; Late Envoy Extraordinary at the Court of Dresden: […], 2nd edition, volume IV, London: […] J[ames] Dodsley […], →OCLC:
text: A debt or demand is liquidated whenever the amount due is agreed on by the parties, or fixed by the operation of law.
ref: 1858, John Phelps Putnam, “Bond”, in United States Digest; Containing a Digest of Decisions of the Courts of Common Law, Equity, and Admiralty, in the United States and in England, volume IX (Annual Digest for 1855), Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC, section I (Execution, Validity, and Construction of Bonds, in General; who Entitled to Sue thereon), page 93, column 2:
topics: law
glosses: To make (something) clear and intelligible.
To ascertain (an amount of money), especially by agreement or through litigation; also, to set out (financial accounts) properly.
examples: text: COVID-19 hit the company hard—I foresee it will liquidate within a year.
text: A reverse triangular merger is the same as a triangular merger, except that the subsidiary created by the acquirer merges into the selling entity and then liquidates, leaving the selling entity as the surviving entity, and a subsidiary of the acquirer.
ref: 2017, Steven M. Bragg, “Mergers and Acquisitions”, in The CFO Guidebook, 3rd edition edition, Centennial, Colo.: Accounting Tools, →ISBN, page 125:
topics: business
commerce
commercial
finance
law
glosses: Of a corporation, partnership, or other business: to settle financial affairs with the aim of ceasing operations; to go into liquidation, to wind up.
Derived terms: word: liquidatable
word: liquidated
word: liquidated damages
word: liquidating
word: liquidator
word: nonliquidating
word: preliquidate
word: reliquidate
word: self-liquidating
word: self-liquidator
word: unliquidatable
word: unliquidated
word: unliquidating
Related terms: illiquid
illiquidity
illiquidly
liquefy
liquify
liquid
liquidation
liquidity
liquidizer
liquor
nonliquidation
preliquidation
reliquidation