Wiktionary

liquidate

English

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WOTD – 16 December 2024

Etymology

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Learned borrowing from Late Latin liquidātus (“liquid; clear”, adjective)[1][2] + 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”)[3] + -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).[3]

Pronunciation

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Verb

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liquidate (third-person singular simple present liquidates, present participle liquidating, simple past and past participle liquidated)

  1. (transitive)
    1. (archaic, rare) Synonym of liquefy (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize.
      • 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:
        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.
    2. (figurative)
      1. To make (a sound) less harsh.
      2. To use up (money or other assets) wastefully; to dissipate, to squander, to waste.
        • 1702, [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, in Reformation of Manners, a Satyr, [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 38:
          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.
      4. (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.
        (to kill): Synonyms: see Thesaurus:kill
        (to abolish): Synonyms: stamp out, wipe out; see also Thesaurus:destroy
        (to abolish): Antonyms: see Thesaurus:create
        • 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:
          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."
        • 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:
          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.
        • 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:
          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!
        • 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:
          "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."
      6. (business, commercial law, finance)
        1. To convert (assets) into cash; to encash, to realize, to redeem.
          • 1939 September, D. S. Barrie, “The Railways of South Wales”, in The Railway Magazine, London: Tothill Press, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 161:
            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.
          • 2016, Colson Whitehead, The Underground Railroad […], New York, N.Y.: Doubleday, →ISBN, page 46:
            Her only relative was a niece in Boston, who arranged for a local lawyer to liquidate Mrs. Garner’s property.
        2. To settle (a debt) by paying the outstanding amount; to pay off.
          • 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:
            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.
          • 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:
            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.
        3. 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.
    3. (obsolete) To make (something) clear and intelligible.
      • 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:
        [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— […]
      • 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:
        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.
      • 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:
        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; […]
      1. To resolve or settle (differences, disputes, etc.).
        • 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:
          [R]eturn to thy maſter, and tell him, e'er vve liquidate our differences by the ſvvord, Manfred vvould hold ſome converſe vvith him.
      2. (chiefly law) To ascertain (an amount of money), especially by agreement or through litigation; also, to set out (financial accounts) properly.
        • 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:
          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.
        • 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:
          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.
          A figurative use.
        • 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:
          A debt or demand is liquidated whenever the amount due is agreed on by the parties, or fixed by the operation of law.
          A summary of the legal rule established in Hargroves v. Cooke, 15 Georgia Reports 321 (1854).
  3. (intransitive, business, commercial law, finance) Of a corporation, partnership, or other business: to settle financial affairs with the aim of ceasing operations; to go into liquidation, to wind up.
    COVID-19 hit the company hard—I foresee it will liquidate within a year.
    • 2017, Steven M. Bragg, “Mergers and Acquisitions”, in The CFO Guidebook, 3rd edition edition, Centennial, Colo.: Accounting Tools, →ISBN, page 125:
      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.

Derived terms

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Translations

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Adjective

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liquidate (not comparable)

  1. (law, archaic or obsolete, rare) Of an amount of money: ascertained, determined, fixed.
    • 1847 June 25, “[10 & 11 Vict.] Cap. L. An Act to Facilitate the Constitution and Transmission of Heritable Securities for Debt in Scotland, and to Render the Same More Effectual for the Recovery of Debts. Schedule (A).”, in A Collection of the Public General Statutes Passed in the Tenth and Eleventh Year of the Reign of Her Majesty Queen Victoria, 1847, London: Printed by George E. Eyre and William Spottiswoode, […]; and published […] by W. Benning & Co, […], →OCLC, page 521:
      I A. B. [here name and design the Granter] grant me to have instantly borrowed and received C. D. [here name and design the Creditor] the Sum of [insert the Sum] Sterling; which Sum I bind myself and my Heirs, Executors, and Representatives whomsoever, without the Necessity of discussing them in their Order, to repay […] with a Fifth Part more of liquidate Penalty in case of Failure, […]

Translations

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References

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  1. ^ “liquidate, adj.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.
  2. ^ “liquidate, v.”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 “liquidate, v.”, in OED Online  ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, September 2023; “liquidate, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

Further reading

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Anagrams

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Italian

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Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /li.kwiˈda.te/
  • Rhymes: -ate
  • Hyphenation: li‧qui‧dà‧te

Etymology 1

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Verb

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liquidate

  1. inflection of liquidare:
    1. second-person plural present indicative
    2. second-person plural imperative

Etymology 2

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Participle

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liquidate f pl

  1. feminine plural of liquidato

Spanish

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Verb

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liquidate

  1. second-person singular voseo imperative of liquidar combined with te
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