[n. of action f. late L. liquidāre to LIQUIDATE. Cf. F. liquidation.]
1. Law. The action or process of ascertaining and apportioning the amounts of a debt, etc.
c. 1575. Balfour’s Practicks (1754), 41. Liquidation of prices of fermis.
1731. Bailey, vol. II. Liquidation, an ascertainment of some dubious or disputable sum; or of the respective pretensions which 2 persons may have to the same liquid or clear sum. Ibid. (1737), Liquidation [in trade] the order and method which a trader endeavours to establish in his affairs.
2. The clearing off or settling (of a debt).
1786. R. King, in Life & Corr. (1894), I. 6. How far a liquidation by the scale will be equitable or just, in your estimation, I cannot say.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., Wks. V. 226. The national debt, for the liquidation of which there is the one exhaustless fund.
1804. Wellington, in Gurw., Desp., III. 272. It shall be applied to the liquidation of his debt to the Company.
1850. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), I. ix. 382. His property was confiscated to the state in liquidation of the fine.
1879. Lubbock, Addr. Pol. & Educ., vi. 127. The liquidation of Debt is a national duty.
3. The action or process of winding up the affairs of a company, etc.; the state or condition of being wound up; esp. in phr. to go into liquidation.
1869. Echo, 23 March. The … Company (limited) has passed into voluntary liquidation.
1873. Daily News, 22 Sept., 3/2. The notifications … for the liquidation of ecclesiastical property in Rome number more than 60.
1874. Mrs. Riddell, Mortomley, II. viii. 99. If his own brother had gone into liquidation.
1879. Daily News, 7 Jan., 5/5. A petition for liquidation in bankruptcy. Ibid. (1880), 28 Oct. The vast majority of defaulters have their affairs arranged in liquidation.
