liquidate
/ˈlɪkwəˌdeɪt/
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.80 in modern English
Meaning
verb
Synonym of liquefy (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize.
Archaic; Transitive verb
verb
To use up (money or other assets) wastefully; to dissipate, to squander, to waste.
Transitive verb
verb
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.
Informal; Transitive verb
verb
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.
Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "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."
- "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."
- "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.""
- "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."
- "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!"
- ""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.""
Etymology
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈlɪkwəˌdeɪt/
- British English: /ˈlɪkwɪdeɪt/