Definition of "foreclose"

foreclose

/ˌfɔːˈkləʊz/

verb
third-person singular simple present forecloses, present participle foreclosing, simple past and past participle foreclosed
1. (transitive, law) To repossess a mortgaged property whose owner has failed to make the necessary payments; used with on.
2. (transitive, law) To cut off (a mortgager) by a judgment of court from the power of redeeming the mortgaged premises.
3. (transitive, originally) To shut up or out; to prevent from doing something.
  Quotations
  The embargo with Spain foreclosed this trade.
  1609, Richard Carew, The Survey of Cornwall. […], new edition, London: […] B. Law, […]; Penzance, Cornwall: J. Hewett, published 1769
  One of the paradoxes of Ostpolitik, as practiced by Brandt and his successors, was that by transferring large sums of hard currency into East Germany and showering the GDR with recognition, attention, and support, West German officials unintentionally foreclosed any chance of internal change, including reform of Eastern Germany’s polluted, antiquated industrial economy.
  2005, Tony Judt, “The Power of the Powerless”, in Postwar: A History of Europe Since 1945, London: Vintage Books, published 2010
  to foreclose the possibility completely. she packed the footwell of the passenger seat with her duffel bag and camping gear and buckled a stack of seed trays on to the seat.
  2023, Eleanor Catton, Birnam Wood, page 55