cancel

present singular third person cancels · US participle present canceling · UK participle present cancelling · US participle past canceled · US past canceled · UK participle past cancelled · UK past cancelled · alternative obsolete cancell

1. transitiveTo 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.

   1765–1769, William Blackstone, Commentaries on the Laws of England, (please specify |book=I to IV), Oxford, Oxfordshire: […] Clarendon Press, →OCLC

2. transitiveTo invalidate or annul something.

   He cancelled his order on their website.

   3 more examples

   "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."

   1914, Marjorie Benton Cooke, Bambi

   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.

   2008 January 9, Michael Kimmelman, “The Legacy of a Pragmatic Custodian of Human Civilization”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 14 Mar 2018

   AUKUS envisages a wide range of diplomatic and technological collaboration, from cybersecurity to artificial intelligence, but at its core is an agreement to start consultations to help Australia acquire a fleet of nuclear-propelled (though not nuclear-armed) submarines. One consequence of this is Australia cancelling a contract, worth tens of billions of dollars, signed in 2016 with France for diesel-electric submarines. In announcing AUKUS on September 15th with the prime ministers of Australia and Britain, Scott Morrison and Boris Johnson, President Joe Biden stressed that it was about “investing in our greatest source of strength—our alliances”.

   2021 September 19, “The strategic reverberations of the AUKUS deal will be big and lasting”, in The Economist, archived from the original on 25 Oct 2021

   Synonyms: belay, undo, remit

3. transitiveTo mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it cannot be reused.

   This machine cancels the letters that have a valid zip code.

4. transitiveTo offset or equalize something.

   The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.

5. transitivemathematicsTo 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.

   2003, Gordana Matić, Clint McCrory, Topology and geometry of manifolds, →ISBN, page 182

6. transitivemediaTo stop production of a programme.
7. datedmediaTo suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
8. obsoleteTo shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.

   cancelled from heaven

   1667, John Milton, “Book VI”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

9. slangTo kill.

   Synonyms: annihilate, bag, baptize, bereave of life, blight, bring down, bump off, bury

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

    To attempt to cancel the founding generation is an attempt to cancel our own freedoms.

    2020 July 3, Kristi Noem speech at Mount Rushmore, C-SPAN

    4 more examples

    Bill Gates is canceled. Gwen Stefani and Erykah Badu are canceled. Despite his relatively strong play in the World Cup, Cristiano Ronaldo has been canceled. Taylor Swift is canceled and Common is canceled and, Wednesday, Antoni Porowski, a “Queer Eye” fan favorite was also canceled. Needless to say, Kanye West is canceled, too.

    2018 June 28, Jonah Engel Bromwich, “Everyone Is Canceled”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 20 Apr 2020

    We Spoke to Joan Cornellá, the Artist Who Really Should Have Been Cancelled By Now [title]

    2019 May 17, Christopher Hooton, “We Spoke to Joan Cornellá, the Artist Who Really Should Have Been Cancelled By Now”, in VICE, archived from the original on 19 Aug 2024

    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. […] "Some of my friends – I don't hang out with as much," said Jazz Moore. “I try to talk to them and explain why their behavior isn't cool before I cancel them."

    2020 February 5, Russell Haythorn, “An explanation of ‘cancel culture’ and why it's become such a popular phenomenon”, in The Denver Channel, archived from the original on 15 Jul 2023

    So this is my answer: If I am being canceled, I want my friends — and this includes not only my closest associates but any people who consider themselves friendly to me — to stand by, remain silent and do nothing. If you care about me, let them eat me alive.

    2022 June 21, Agnes Callard, “If I Get Canceled, Let Them Eat Me Alive”, in The New York Times, →ISSN, archived from the original on 20 Jul 2022

    Synonyms: blacklist, deplatform, black, blackball, blacklist, boycott

plural cancels · alternative obsolete cancell

1. USA cancellation.
   1. USA control message posted to Usenet that serves to cancel a previously posted message.
2. obsoleteAn 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.

   1678, Antiquitates Christianæ: Or, the History of the Life and Death of the Holy Jesus: […], London: […] E. Flesher, and R. Norton, for R[ichard] Royston, […], →OCLC

3. mediaThe suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages.
4. mediaThe page thus suppressed.
5. mediaThe page that replaces it.

plural Cancels

1. A surname.