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LIABILITY
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I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The quality of being something that holds you back
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("liability" is a kind of...):
bad; badness (that which is below standard or expectations as of ethics or decency)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "liability"):
weak point (an attribute that is inadequate or deficient)
disadvantage (the quality of having an inferior or less favorable position)
Antonym:
asset (a useful or valuable quality)
Derivation:
liable (at risk of or subject to experiencing something usually unpleasant)
Sense 2
Meaning:
An obligation to pay money to another party
Synonyms:
financial obligation; indebtedness; liability
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("liability" is a kind of...):
obligation (the state of being obligated to do or pay something)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "liability"):
limited liability (the liability of a firm's owners for no more than the capital they have invested in the firm)
debt (the state of owing something (especially money))
arrears (the state of being behind in payments)
account payable; payable (a liability account showing how much is owed for goods and services purchased on credit)
scot and lot (obligations of all kinds taken as a whole)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The state of being legally obliged and responsible
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("liability" is a kind of...):
susceptibility; susceptibleness (the state of being susceptible; easily affected)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "liability"):
taxability (liability to taxation)
ratability; rateability (the state of being liable to assessment or taxation)
Derivation:
liable (held legally responsible)
Context examples:
Traddles, with a perceptible lengthening of his face, explained that he had not been able to approach this subject; that it had shared the fate of Mr. Micawber's liabilities, in not being comprehended in the terms he had made; that we were no longer of any authority with Uriah Heep; and that if he could do us, or any of us, any injury or annoyance, no doubt he would.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Suffice it to observe, that it was a masterpiece of eloquence; and that those passages in which he more particularly traced his own successful career to its source, and warned the younger portion of his auditory from the shoals of ever incurring pecuniary liabilities which they were unable to liquidate, brought a tear into the manliest eye present.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Under the temporary pressure of pecuniary liabilities, contracted with a view to their immediate liquidation, but remaining unliquidated through a combination of circumstances, I have been under the necessity of assuming a garb from which my natural instincts recoil—I allude to spectacles—and possessing myself of a cognomen, to which I can establish no legitimate pretensions.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
Where, for the first time in many revolving years, the overwhelming pressure of pecuniary liabilities was not proclaimed, from day to day, by importune voices declining to vacate the passage; where there was no knocker on the door for any creditor to appeal to; where personal service of process was not required, and detainees were merely lodged at the gate!
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
How the emigrants never wrote home, otherwise than cheerfully and hopefully; how Mr. Micawber had actually remitted divers small sums of money, on account of those pecuniary liabilities, in reference to which he had been so business-like as between man and man; how Janet, returning into my aunt's service when she came back to Dover, had finally carried out her renunciation of mankind by entering into wedlock with a thriving tavern-keeper; and how my aunt had finally set her seal on the same great principle, by aiding and abetting the bride, and crowning the marriage-ceremony with her presence; were among our topics—already more or less familiar to me through the letters I had had.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
I could not receive it as a gift, said Mr. Micawber, full of fire and animation, but if a sufficient sum could be advanced, say at five per cent interest, per annum, upon my personal liability—say my notes of hand, at twelve, eighteen, and twenty-four months, respectively, to allow time for something to turn up—
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
