Meaning

verb get rid of (someone who may be a threat) by killing

verb eliminate by paying off (debts)

verb convert into cash

originLearned borrowing from Late Latin liquidātus (“liquid; clear”, adjective) + English -ate (suffix forming verbs, and forming adjectives with the sense ‘characterized by [the specified things]’). Liquidātus is the perfect passive participle of liquidō (“to turn into a liquid, melt; to make clear”), from Latin liquidus (“fluid, liquid; clear, transparent”) + -ō (suffix forming regular…

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 3.0