liquidate UK /ˈlɪkwɪdeɪt/US /ˈlɪkwəˌdeɪt/verb 11adjective 1forms 3 verb11 •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. •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. •To convert (assets) into cash; to encash, to realize, to redeem.Her only relative was a niece in Boston, who arranged for a local lawyer to liquidate Mrs. Garner’s property. — 2016 •(informal, figurative) 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. — 1943 •To settle (a debt) by paying the outstanding amount; to pay off. •(figurative) 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. — 1702 •(figurative) To make (a sound) less harsh. •To ascertain (an amount of money), especially by agreement or through litigation; also, to set out (financial accounts) properly.A debt or demand is liquidated whenever the amount due is agreed on by the parties, or fixed by the operation of law. — 1858 •(no longer used) To resolve or settle (differences, disputes, etc.).[R]eturn to thy master, and tell him, e'er vve liquidate our differences by the svvord, Manfred vvould hold some converse vvith him. — 1764 •(no longer used) To make (something) clear and intelligible. •(no longer used, rare) Synonym of liquefy (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize. adjective1 •(no longer used, rare) Of an amount of money: ascertained, determined, fixed. formsliquidated · liquidating · liquidates