liquidate

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. v. To pay off (a debt, a claim, or an obligation); settle.
2. v. To settle the affairs of (a business firm, for example) by determining the liabilities and applying the assets to their discharge.
3. v. To convert (assets) into cash.
4. v. To put an end to; abolish.
5. v. To put to death; kill.
6. v. To settle a debt, a claim, or an obligation.
7. v. To settle the affairs of a business or an estate by disposing of its assets and liabilities. See Synonyms at eliminate.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To make clear or plain; clarify; free from obscurity.
2. To clear up; reduce to order or precision; settle the particulars of; adjust: as, to liquidate the affairs of a bankrupt firm. See liquidation.
3. To clear off; settle; pay: as, to liquidate a debt or a mortgage.
4. To make less harsh and offensive: as, to liquidate the harshness of sound.

Wiktionary

1. v. transitive To settle (a debt) by paying the outstanding amount.
2. v. transitive To settle the affairs of (a company), by using its assets to pay its debts.
3. v. transitive To convert (assets) into cash.
4. v. transitive To do away with.
5. v. transitive To kill.
6. v. law, transitive To determine by agreement or by litigation the precise amount of (indebtedness); to make the amount of (a debt) clear and certain.
7. v. obsolete, transitive To make clear and intelligible.
8. v. obsolete, transitive To make liquid.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. v. (Law) To determine by agreement or by litigation the precise amount of (indebtedness); or, where there is an indebtedness to more than one person, to determine the precise amount of (each indebtedness); to make the amount of (an indebtedness) clear and certain.
2. v. In an extended sense: To ascertain the amount, or the several amounts, of, and apply assets toward the discharge of (an indebtedness).
3. v. To discharge; to pay off or settle, as an indebtedness.
4. v. To make clear and intelligible.
5. v. obsolete To make liquid.
6. v. To convert (assets) into cash.
7. v. To kill; -- used mostly of governments or organizations killing their enemies.
8. v. To dissolve (an organization); to terminate (an activity).

WordNet 3.0

1. v. convert into cash
2. v. get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing
3. v. settle the affairs of by determining the debts and applying the assets to pay them off
4. v. eliminate by paying off (debts)