revoke

present singular third person revokes · participle present revoking · participle past revoked · past revoked

1. transitiveTo cancel or invalidate by withdrawing or reversing.

   I hereby revoke all former wills.

   4 more examples

   Your driver's license will be revoked.

   1539, Myles Coverdale et al., (translators), Great Bible, London: Thomas Berthelet, 1540, deuterocanonical addition to the Book of Esther, heading to Chapter 16, The Copye of the letters of Arthaxerses, wherby he reuoketh those which he fyrst sende forth.

   […] If, on the tenth day following, Thy banish’d trunk be found in our dominions, The moment is thy death. Away! By Jupiter, This shall not be revok’d.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene i]

   I formd them free, and free they must remain, Till they enthrall themselves: I else must change Thir nature, and revoke the high Decree Unchangeable, Eternal, which ordain’d Thir freedom,

   1667, John Milton, “Book III”, 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, lines 124-128

2. intransitiveTo fail to follow suit in a game of cards when holding a card in that suit.

   They had just sat down at the bridge table, and Mrs Lackersteen had just revoked out of pure nervousness, when there was a heavy thump on the roof.

   1934 October, George Orwell [pseudonym; Eric Arthur Blair], chapter 22, in Burmese Days, New York, N.Y.: Harper & Brothers, Publishers, →OCLC

3. obsoleteTo call or bring back.

   So well he did his busie paines apply, That the faint sprite he did reuoke againe, To her fraile mansion of mortality.

   1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto III”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 392

   Synonyms: recall

4. obsoleteTo hold back.

   Yet she with pitthy words and counsell sad, Still stroue their stubborne rages to reuoke,

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 213

   Synonyms: repress, restrain

5. obsoleteTo move (something) back or away.

   A flaming fire, ymixt with smouldry smoke, And stinking Sulphure, that with griesly hate And dreadfull horror did all entraunce choke, Enforced them their forward footing to reuoke.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto XI”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, page 566

   Synonyms: draw back, withdraw

6. obsoleteTo call back to mind.

   late 1600s-early 1700s, Robert South, Sermon on Proverbs 18.14 in Sermons Preached on Several Occasions, Oxford: The Clarendon Press, 1823, p. 132, A man, by revoking and recollecting within himself former passages, will be still apt to inculcate these sad memoirs to his conscience.

   Synonyms: recollect, remember

plural revokes

1. The act of revoking in a game of cards.

   Employ two revokes, two trumpings of your partner's best card and two ignorings of a call — all in the same hand!

   1923, William Henry Koebel, All Aboard: A Frivolous Book, page 102

2. A renege; a violation of important rules regarding the play of tricks in trick-taking card games serious enough to render the round invalid.
3. A violation ranked in seriousness somewhat below overt cheating, with the status of a more minor offense only because, when it happens, it is usually accidental.