How do you use the word "liquidate" in a sentence?

Q: How do you use the word "liquidate" in a sentence?

Here are real-life examples of using "liquidate": Shareholders voted to liquidate the company's assets. The Soviet Union tried to liquidate religion from the Soviet life.

Liquidate Meaning

/ˈlɪkwɪdeɪt/

Definition, CEFR level B2, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.

Definition

verbSynonym of liquefy (“to make (something) into a liquid”); to liquidize.

verbTo make (a sound) less harsh.

Sentence Examples

Shareholders voted to liquidate the company's assets.

The Soviet Union tried to liquidate religion from the Soviet life.

Synonyms & Antonyms

Synonyms:

waste neutralize

Antonyms:

None

CEFR Practice Quiz

The struggling company had to ____ its assets to pay off all debts quickly.

CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)

The business owners had to ____ all their assets to pay off the significant debts that they had built up.

Word Origin & History

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).

Literary Quotations & Historical Citations

"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." — 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:

"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, [Daniel Defoe], “Part II”, in Reformation of Manners, a Satyr, [London]: [s.n.], →OCLC, page 38:

"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."" — 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:

"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, 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:

"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!" — 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:

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