Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Liability \Li`a*bil"i*ty\ (l[imac]`[.a]*b[i^]l"[i^]*t[y^]), n.; pl. Liabilities (-t[i^]z).
The state of being liable; as, the liability of an insurer; liability to accidents; liability to the law.
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That which one is under obligation to pay, or for which one is liable. Specifically, in the pl., the sum of one's pecuniary obligations; -- opposed to assets.
Limited liability. See Limited company, under Limited.
Wiktionary
n. (context finance English) The liability of an owner or a partner of a company for no more capital than they have invested.
WordNet
n. the liability of a firm's owners for no more than the capital they have invested in the firm
Wikipedia
Limited liability is where a person's financial liability is limited to a fixed sum, most commonly the value of a person's investment in a company or partnership. If a company with limited liability is sued, then the claimants are suing the company, not its owners or investors. A shareholder in a limited company is not personally liable for any of the debts of the company, other than for the value of their investment in that company. This usually takes the form of that person's dividends in the company being zero, since the company has no profits to allocate. The same is true for the members of a limited liability partnership and the limited partners in a limited partnership. By contrast, sole proprietors and partners in general partnerships are each liable for all the debts of the business (unlimited liability).
Although a shareholder's liability for the company's actions is limited, the shareholders may still be liable for their own acts. For example, the directors of small companies (who are frequently also shareholders) are often required to give personal guarantees of the company's debts to those lending to the company. They will then be liable for those debts in the event that the company cannot pay, although the other shareholders will not be so liable. This is known as co-signing.
Usage examples of "limited liability".
You're not protected by limited liability like you are with a corporation, state regulations on these partnership forms you're wide open, the firm's liable means you're liable, insurance protection's like throwing your drowning sailor a lifesaver, a firm with two hundred lawyers at five or six thousand a head there's over a million in premiums right there.
If the origin of the system of limited liability which is believed to be so essential to modern commerce is be attributed to those considerations of public policy on which it would now be sustained, that system has nothing to do with the law of collision.
Yemen is one of the few countries to implement traditional Sunni shari'a law and a limited liability company scam at the same time.
Pure zero-sum mercantilism, red in tooth and nail, in an environment where they have barely invented banking, never mind the limited liability company.
Gran, seated beside me, put one hand on my knee and one hand on the knee of Doc Szandor's brother-in-law, a hotshot Harvard Law post-doc whom we'd retained as corporate counsel for a new Limited Liability Corporation.
Even a child knew what money was and what corporations did, even if the concept of limited liability remained elusive.
Get one of your subordinates to explain 'limited liability' to you.
It's this thing - terrible bore, but a fact of life nevertheless - called limited liability.