liquidate

verb

1. (archaic, rare, transitive)Synonym of liquefy (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize.

   “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. (figuratively, transitive)To make (a sound) less harsh.
3. (figuratively, transitive)To use up (money or other assets) wastefully; to dissipate, to squander, to waste.

   “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. (figuratively, informal, transitive)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.

   “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."”

5. (figuratively, transitive)To convert (assets) into cash; to encash, to realize, to redeem.

   “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.”

   “Her only relative was a niece in Boston, who arranged for a local lawyer to liquidate Mrs. Garner’s property.”

6. (figuratively, transitive)To settle (a debt) by paying the outstanding amount; to pay off.

   “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.”

   “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.”

7. (figuratively, transitive)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.
8. (obsolete, transitive)To make (something) clear and intelligible.

   “[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— […]”

   “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.”

   “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; […]”

9. (obsolete, transitive)To make (something) clear and intelligible.

   “[R]eturn to thy maſter, and tell him, e'er vve liquidate our differences by the ſvvord, Manfred vvould hold ſome converſe vvith him.”

10. (obsolete, transitive)To make (something) clear and intelligible.

    “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 debt or demand is liquidated whenever the amount due is agreed on by the parties, or fixed by the operation of law.”

11. (intransitive)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.”

    “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.”

adj

1. (archaic, not-comparable, obsolete, rare)Of an amount of money: ascertained, determined, fixed.

   “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, […]”