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liability

NOUN · English

Experimental / limited support

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Experimental coverage — measured below Partial on the number of recorded words, definitions, translations, word forms and pronunciation. Treat entries as evidence to check; meanings may be incomplete.

English is Experimental in Words. Support is measured, not declared: a language reaches Partial only when every measure meets its threshold, and a measure that has not been taken does not count. The development corpus holds 60 source-backed words in English. What is shown may be incomplete, and pronunciation audio, generated forms and generated examples are not offered.

  1. Definition: An obligation, debt or responsibility owed to someone.

    countable · uncountable

    No translation has been attempted for this sense.

    • "I was to say that Maw and Meggins disclaim all responsibility," continued the other. "They admit no liability at all, but in consideration of your son's services they wish to present you with a certain sum as compensation." 1901, W. W. Jacobs, The Monkey's Paw:
    • Those products – known as liability-driven investing, or LDIs – help offset liabilities and risks on pension funds’ books. 2022 September 29, Kalyeena Makortoff, Sarah Butler, “‘I’d never seen anything like it’: how market turmoil sparked a pension fund selloff”, in The Guardian:
  2. Definition: Any kind of debt recorded on the right-hand side of a balance sheet.

    countable · uncountable

    No translation has been attempted for this sense.

    No example is recorded for this sense.

  3. Definition: A handicap that holds something back, a drawback, someone or something that is a burden to whoever is required to take care of them; a person or action that exposes others to greater risk.

    countable · uncountable

    No translation has been attempted for this sense.

    • Asked if at some point Huma becomes a liability to Hillary, the long-term Clinton insider replies, “It’s like anything else. I don’t think so, but you know I don’t have any idea. Hillary is very loyal, but she’s obviously pragmatic.” 2016 January 31, “Is Huma Abedin Hillary Clinton’s Secret Weapon or Her Next Big Problem?”, in Vanity Fair:
  4. Definition: A person on a team that is more of a hindrance than a help.

    countable · derogatory · informal · mildly · uncountable

    No translation has been attempted for this sense.

    • You're a bloody liability sometimes! Usage example — not an attested quotation.
  5. Definition: The likelihood of something happening.

    countable · uncountable

    No translation has been attempted for this sense.

    No example is recorded for this sense.

  6. Definition: The condition of being susceptible to something.

    countable · uncountable

    No translation has been attempted for this sense.

    No example is recorded for this sense.

No paradigm has been compiled for this word yet.

Etymology: From liable + -ity.

No related word is recorded for this word.