# cancel

Pronunciation: say "KAN-suhl" /ˈkæn.sl̩/

## Verb

1. To make something invalid or void, ending its legal or official force.
   - Simple: To make something stop being valid or official.
   - _The committee voted to cancel the new regulation._
   - _A late payment can cancel the warranty entirely._
2. To withdraw public, financial, or moral support from someone regarded as having said or done something unacceptable.
   - Simple: To publicly reject someone and stop supporting them because of something they said or did.
   - _Critics moved to cancel the author over remarks made years earlier._
   - _Sponsors canceled the comedian after the controversy spread online._
3. To halt production of a television or radio program, ending its run.
   - Simple: To stop making a television or radio show.
   - _Executives chose to cancel the drama despite its loyal audience._
   - _The studio canceled the series before the finale was filmed._
4. To strike out written matter by drawing lines through it.
   - Simple: To draw lines through writing to remove it.
   - _The editor canceled the extra paragraph with bold strokes._
   - _He would cancel each completed item on the list with a pen._
5. To offset or counteract something so that opposing effects neutralize each other.
   - Simple: To balance out one thing with another so the two have no overall effect.
   - _Higher costs canceled the benefit of the new contract._
   - _The two errors happened to cancel each other completely._
6. To deface or stamp a postage stamp or similar item so that it cannot be reused.
   - Simple: To mark a stamp or ticket so it cannot be used again.
   - _The postmark canceled the stamp the moment the letter was processed._
   - _Machines cancel thousands of stamps an hour in large mail centers._
7. To eliminate a shared factor from a fraction's numerator and denominator, or from both sides of an equation.
   - Simple: To remove the same number from the top and bottom of a fraction.
   - _We can cancel the common factor to reduce the fraction to lowest terms._
   - _Dividing through lets you cancel the variable from both sides._
9. To kill a person, used as criminal or violent slang. *(slang)*
   - Simple: To kill someone, especially on purpose.
   - _He bragged that his crew would cancel any rival who crossed them._
   - _The hitman was paid to cancel a witness._

## Noun

8. An instance of calling something off; a cancellation. *(US)*
   - Simple: The act of calling off or stopping something that was planned.
   - _The team announced a cancel of the weekend tournament._
   - _Each cancel had to be logged in the reservation system._
10. The suppression or striking out of typeset matter, or of one or more printed pages.
   - Simple: The act of removing printed text or whole pages from a book.
   - _The publisher ordered a cancel after spotting the printer's slander._
   - _Repeated cancels drove up the cost of the edition._
11. A leaf or page that has been struck out and removed from a book during cancellation.
   - Simple: A printed page that has been taken out of a book.
   - _The librarian located a surviving cancel bound into a presentation copy._
   - _Two cancels from the suppressed edition turned up in an archive._
12. A replacement leaf or page printed and inserted in place of one that was struck out.
   - Simple: A new printed page put in to replace one that was taken out.
   - _The cancel reprinted the dedication with the patron's name corrected._
   - _Binders tipped each cancel in along the inner margin._
14. A Usenet control message whose purpose is to delete an article that was posted earlier. *(US)*
   - Simple: A special message sent on Usenet that removes a message posted earlier.
   - _A forged cancel can wipe out posts the author never meant to remove._
   - _Administrators tracked a flood of cancels targeting the newsgroup._

## Verb

13. To suppress or omit text, or to strike out matter already set in type. *(dated)*
   - Simple: To remove or strike out written or printed words.
   - _The author asked the press to cancel a paragraph he regretted._
   - _Compositors canceled the disputed passage at the publisher's request._
16. To shut out or exclude, as with a railing or with latticework. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: To shut someone or something out, as with a fence or gate.

## Noun

15. An enclosed area, or a point or line beyond which something does not extend. *(obsolete)*
   - Simple: An enclosed area, with a fence or boundary marking its edge.

## Origin

It comes through Middle English and Anglo-Norman canceler ("to cross out with lines") from Latin cancellō ("to make resemble a lattice"), based on cancellus, a small railing or lattice: from the idea of crossing something out with lines.

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/cancel (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).