0 (especially of banks) to take back property that was bought with borrowed money because the money was not being paid back as formally agreed:
The bank is threatening to foreclose on the family's house.
1 to prevent something from being considered as a possibility in the future:
The leader's aggressive stance seems to have foreclosed any chance of diplomatic compromise.
2 (esp. of banks) to take control of the property of owners because they did not pay back the bank’s money borrowed to pay for it
3 if a company, especially a bank, forecloses, it takes back property that was bought with borrowed money because the money was not being paid back as agreed:
4 to prevent something from being considered as a possibility in the future:
foreclose competition/a market/options There was evidence of suspected market sharing agreements aimed at foreclosing competition and preventing access to the market.
be foreclosed from (doing) sth EC operators are foreclosed from bidding in Massachusetts on non-trade grounds.
We have foreclosed the cultic function of the opera house, in the sense that we do not believe it puts us in touch with divine or cosmic powers.
In contrast, street encounters occurred only when one of the warring parties foreclosed mutual criticism in each other's presence and had to be compelled to meet its opponents.
The personalisation of state power, and the disregard for due legal and constitutional processes under military rule, has also foreclosed the development of enduring institutional responses to minority problems.
Such a coalition (which could be of "absolutist" or "progressive" origins) foreclosed the patronage option and forced the party to employ other, more collective, political appeals.
I have not had a single letter of complaint that a council or a building society has foreclosed.
They find themselves defaulting on second mortgages, and the procedures for foreclosing start to apply.
He began by saying that we have left out the mortgagee who forecloses.
The banks, controlled by robber barons, have foreclosed and bought up that food.
