liquidate
UK /ˈlɪkwɪdeɪt/ · US /ˈlɪkwəˌdeɪt/ verb, adjective
Forms liquidates liquidating liquidated
- verb (archaic, rare) Synonym of liquefy (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize.
- verb To make (a sound) less harsh.
- verb To use up (money or other assets) wastefully; to dissipate, to squander, to waste.
- verb (informal) 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.
- verb To convert (assets) into cash; to encash, to realize, to redeem.
- verb To settle (a debt) by paying the outstanding amount; to pay off.
- 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.
- verb (obsolete) To make (something) clear and intelligible.
- adjective (law, archaic or obsolete, rare) Of an amount of money: ascertained, determined, fixed.
Synonyms
liquefy annihilate bag baptize bereave of life blight bring down bump off bury cack compromised to a permanent end croak crush dash deactivate dead demolish destroy dispatch dispose of neutralize neutralise waste knock off do in pay off
Antonyms
bring forth cause contrive create ferment forge develop engender evolve generate gin up innate
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.
Verb sense 1.2.3 (“to kill; to abolish or eliminate”) is a semantic loan from Russian ликвиди́ровать (likvidírovatʹ); while verb sense 1.2.4 and verb sense 2 (business-related senses) were influenced by French liquider and Italian liquidare, all ultimately from Latin liquidus (see above).
Webster’s 1913
- verb To determine by agreement or by litigation the precise amount of (indebtedness); or, where there is an indebtedness to more than one person, to determine the precise amount of (each indebtedness); to make the amount of (an indebtedness); clear and certain.
- verb In an extended sense: To ascertain the amount, or the several amounts, of , and apply assets toward the discharge of (an indebtedness). Abbott.
Etymology [LL. liquidatus, p. p. of liquidate to liquidate, fr. L. liquidus liquid, clear. See Liquid.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “liquidate”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details