liability

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

• noun The state of being liable.
• noun Something for which one is liable; an obligation, responsibility, or debt.
• noun The financial obligations entered in the balance sheet of a business enterprise.
• noun Something that holds one back; a handicap.
• noun Likelihood.

from The Century Dictionary.

• noun The state of being liable through obligation orduty; fixed or contingent responsibility; exposure to that which is or may be required: as, the liability of a principal for his agent's acts.
• noun The state of being liable incidentally or by chance; exposure to that which is possible or probable; tendency; susceptibility: as, liability to accident or contagion; a physician's liability to broken rest.
• noun That for which one is liable; that to which one is bound or exposed; a fixed or contingent obligation: as, to incur or assume a heavy liability (as for the payment of a debt or the performance of a service); the assets and liabilities of a bank.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

• noun The state of being liable
• noun That which one is under obligation to pay, or for which one is liable.
• noun See Limited company, under Limited.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

• noun the condition of being liable
• noun an obligation, debt or responsibility owed to someone.
• noun a handicap that holds one back
• noun the likelihood of something happening

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

• noun the quality of being something that holds you back
• noun the state of being legally obliged and responsible
• noun an obligation to pay money to another party