Takes possession of a mortgaged property when the borrower fails to make payments; shuts out or prevents possibility.
From Old French 'forclos' and Medieval Latin 'forclosus,' literally meaning 'shut out' (from 'for-' and 'clos,' close). The term migrated from general legal use to specifically financial/property law.
The financial crisis of 2008 made 'forecloses' a word almost every American understood—it became the sound of economic collapse as millions heard their homes were being foreclosed, showing how economic events reshape which words matter most to us.
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