foreclose : Idioms & Phrases


To foreclose a mortgage

  • (not technically correct, but often used to signify) the obtaining a judgment for the payment of an overdue mortgage, and the exposure of the mortgaged property to sale to meet the mortgage debt.
Webster 1913

To foreclose a mortgager

  • (Law), to cut him off by a judgment of court from the power of redeeming the mortgaged premises, termed his equity of redemption.
Webster 1913