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cancel

verb
/ˈkæn.sl̩/

Etymology

From Middle English cancellen, from Anglo-Norman canceler (“to cross out with lines”) (modern French chanceler (“to stagger, sway”)), from Old French canceler, from Latin cancellō (“to make resemble a lattice”), from cancellus (“a railing or lattice”), diminutive of cancer (“a lattice”).

  1. derived from cancellō
  2. derived from canceler
  3. derived from canceler
  4. inherited from cancellen

Definitions

  1. To cross out something with lines etc.

    • A deed may be avoided by delivering it up to be cancelled; that is, to have lines drawn over it in the form of latticework or cancelli; the phrase is now used figuratively for any manner of obliterating or defacing it.

  2. To invalidate or annul something.

    • He cancelled his order on their website.
    • "I don't know what your agreement was, Herr Professor, but if it had money in it, cancel it. I want him to learn that lesson, too."
    • These also included not canceling the Christmas display, whose kitschiness drove him bonkers but which endured because people love it and because he is a populist and showman, despite his elitist veneer, and because he has a heart.

  3. To mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it can't be reused.

    • This machine cancels the letters that have a valid zip code.
  4. ›+ 13 more definitions

    1. To offset or equalize something.

      • The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.

    2. To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from…

      To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.

      • Such a 2-handle cancels the 1-handle so the manifold is D⁴.

    3. To stop production of a programme.

    4. To suppress or omit

      To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.

    5. To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework

      To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.

      • cancelled from heaven

    6. To kill.

    7. To cease to provide financial or moral support to (someone deemed unacceptable)

      To cease to provide financial or moral support to (someone deemed unacceptable); to disinvite. Compare cancel culture.

      • We Spoke to Joan Cornellá, the Artist Who Really Should Have Been Cancelled By Now [title]
      • You may have never heard the term "cancel culture," but you certainly know some of the faces who have been canceled. Everyone from Cosby to Matt Lauer.

    8. A cancellation.

    9. An enclosure

      An enclosure; a boundary; a limit.

      • A prison is but a retirement, and opportunity of serious thoughts, to a person whose spirit[…]desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body.

    10. The suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.

    11. The page thus suppressed.

    12. The page that replaces it.

    13. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

autocancel, precancel, cancelability, cancelable, cancelbot, canceler, cancellability, cancellable, cancelment, cancel out, cancel someone's Christmas, miscancel, noise-cancel, overcancel, recancel, soft-cancel, uncancel, cancel-worthy, dumb cancel, killer cancel, mute cancel

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for cancel. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA