to equalize accounts, burdens, or taxes

The tumors, known as chordomas, eat bone and tissue and have done irreparable damage to her spine. Ms. Haigh, who has a 3-year-old daughter, cannot work while she is undergoing treatment.

Rome fell to the Goths in 410 AD.

Here... he could wander out into the woods alone (after he had shaken off the attentions of the too sequacious Almeda).