Emily Dickinson Lexicon

LIQ'UID-ATE, v.t. [Fr. liquider; L. liquido.]

1. To clear from all obscurity. Time only can liquidate the meaning of all parts of a compound system. – Hamilton.
2. To settle; to adjust; to ascertain or reduce to precision in amount. Which method of liquidating the amercement to a precise sum, was usually performed in the superior courts. – Blackstone. The clerk of the commons' house of assembly in 1774, gave certificates to the public creditors that their demands were liquidated, and should be provided for in the next tax-bill. Ramsay. The domestic debt may be subdivided into liquidated and unliquidated. – Hamilton.
3. To pay; to settle, adjust and satisfy; as a debt. – Wheaton. Kyburgh was ceded to Zuric by Sigismond, to liquidate a debt of a thousand florins. Coxe's Switz.
4. To make smooth, or less harsh and offensive; as, to liquidate the harshness of sound.