1609 J. Skene tr. Regiam Majestatem 77 The Judge sal take ane pledge fra the defender..to pay the debt, with the skaiths taxat and liquidat in the persewers clame, to the persewer, within space of fiftene dayes.

1868 Act 31 & 32 Vict. c. 101 Sched. (FF) No. 1 With a Fifth Part more of the Interest due at each Term of liquidate Penalty.

1755 S. Johnson Dict. Eng. Lang. Liquidate, to clear away; to lessen debts.

1785 Earl of Malmesbury Diaries & Corr. II. 122 The King desired the Prince of Wales to send in an Exact Statement of his debts, giving him to understand he would liquidate them.

1786 R. King Life & Corr. (1894) I. 6 As the debt arose during the circulation of paper, it may probably be more easily liquidated by the scale than in any other way.

1823 J. Lingard Hist. Eng. VI. 110 Charles..had not wherewith to liquidate the arrears of his victorious army in Italy.

1834 H. Martineau Moral Many Fables iv. 135 No effort should be spared to liquidate the National Debt.

1835 T. C. Haliburton Clockmaker 1st Ser. xviii When I liquidate for my dinner, I like to get about the best that's goin.

1852 G. Grote Hist. Greece IX. ii. lxxi. 232 The pay which he had offered was never liquidated.

1868 J. E. T. Rogers Man. Polit. Econ. (1876) iv. 6 In the vast majority of instances no money is used to liquidate debts on either side.

1924 Yale Rev. 13 477 In this way the ‘Labor Opposition’, the ‘Workers Pravda’, and a few other recalcitrant groups were all ‘liquidated’.

1926 C. Sheridan Turkish Kaleidoscope xvi. 125 The evening paper, L'Akcham, came out with large headlines: ‘How to Liquidate a Strike’.

1930 Economist 1 Nov. (Russ. Suppl.) 2/2 Only in 1929, when the growth of the Socialist section of agriculture was enabling the State to become independent of the supplies of the Kulaks, could the Government begin to ‘liquidate’ them.

1939 V. A. Demant Relig. Prospect iv. 90 The Trotskyists..are ‘liquidated’ as being insufficiently dialectical to see that the policy of the Russian State at any moment has absolute finality.

1943 C. S. Lewis Abolition of Man iii. 37 Once we killed bad men: now we liquidate unsocial elements.

1957 E. Partridge Eng. gone Wrong ii. 31 Liquidate, therefore, is an erudite synonym of ‘to wind up’, hence, in its euphemistic transferred sense, it means ‘to eradicate in a thoroughly ruthless manner’, ‘to destroy, especially by mass murder’.

1970 Nature 26 Dec. 1248/2 All existing sources of industrial pollution are to be ‘liquidated’.

1971 Sunday Times 13 June 12/6 When the army units fanned out in Dacca on the evening of March 25..many of them carried lists of people to be liquidated.

1727 N. Bailey Universal Etymol. Eng. Dict. II Liquidated, made moist or clear; also spoken of Bills made current or payable; pay'd off, cleared.

1798 E. H. Bay Rep. Cases Superior Courts S.-Carolina 16 Liquidated accounts.

1848 J. Arnould Law Marine Insurance I. i. v. 115 Debts, in the strict legal sense of that word; i.e.,..ascertained or liquidated sums.

1891 Daily News 15 Jan. 2/2 A substantial surplus will remain for division among the partners of the liquidated firm.

1749 in Public Rec. Colony of Connecticut (1876) IX. 453 That he press forward the liquidating, settling and obtaining final payment for the accounts.

1895 Daily News 8 May 8/7 Wheat..declined under the combined control of lower cables, further rains in the West, and active liquidating.

1899 Daily News 2 Feb. 4/7 Liquidating or abortive companies.

1931 Economist 20 June 1331/1 The market capitalisation of the common shares of these concerns was equal to only 74 per cent. of the ‘liquidating value’ of the assets behind them.

1964 Ann. Reg. 1963 103 It provided that..the permanent heads of the three territorial Treasuries would constitute a liquidating agency to wind up the affairs of the Federation.

1975 J. Gardner Killer for Song ii. 16 Special Security had employed him as an agent—a liquidating agent, designed, quite literally, to cut down security risks. They had even called him the Liquidator.