liquidationnoun/ˌlɪkwəˈdeɪʃən/

• 1

  The act of exchange of an asset of lesser liquidity with a more liquid one, such as cash.

• 2

  The action or process of winding up the affairs of a company, etc.; the selling of the assets of a business as part of the process of dissolving the business.

  • The store is having a liquidation sale: everything must go as they go out of business.
  • And, in a sign of how wide the property crash is, the latest item to turn up in liquidation sales in Dublin is a job lot of 15 cranes, including a pair towering over Anglo Irish Bank's half-built headquarters in the city's docklands.
• 3

  The clearing off or settling of a debt.

  • Their compenſation becomes part of the national debt, for the liquidation of which there is the one exhautſtleſs fund.
  • [A] money-box was kept on the kitchen mantelshelf, into which it was publicly made known that all my earnings were dropped. I have an impression that they were to be contributed eventually towards the liquidation of the National Debt, but I know I had no hope of any personal participation in the treasure.
• 4

  The action or process of abolishing or eliminating; the murder of dehumanized victims.

  • Near-synonyms: devitalization, fatality; see also Thesaurus:death, Thesaurus:killing
  • When Stalinists spoke of the liquidation of the kulaks as a class, they intentionally created ambiguity regarding reeducation versus murder.
• 5

  board-gameschessgamesThe partial clearing of the board, by an exchange of pieces, to obtain an obviously winning position.

  • The liquidation with 31 Qd2 Rd2 put [Viktor] Korchnoi into a lost ending, but nothing else would have rescued him either.
  • 20 a4 e4 21 Rfd1 Rd8 22 Bf1! Forcing an extremely favourable liquidation.
• 6

  rareThe action or fact of partaking of an alcoholic drink.

  • As regards liquidation, champagne, which, except at the tables of the wealthy, was never seen, for it was a guinea a bottle, is now almost as vin ordinaire.
  • His desire for liquidation was expressed so heartily that I went with him to a café down the street where we had some vile vermouth and bitters.