veto

plural vetoes · plural vetos

1. A political right to disapprove of (and thereby stop) the process of a decision, a law etc.

   The people’s veto is a constitutional provision[…]that allows the citizens of Maine, through the initiative and referendum process, to repeal a piece of legislation passed by the legislature.

   2026 September 26 (last accessed), “People's Veto”, in Maine Legislature

2. An invocation of that right.

   Now, Republican legislators cannot afford to lose a single seat, in either chamber, if they want to continue to override his vetoes.

   2024 August 31, David W. Chen, “In North Carolina, the Math for a Supermajority May Come Down to One”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 05 Sep 2024

   2 more examples

   I called Haig in and told him that I wanted to veto the agricultural appropriations bill we had discussed in the Cabinet meeting on Tuesday, because I did not want Ford to have to do it on his first day as President. Haig brought the veto statement in, and I signed it. It was the last piece of legislation I acted on as President.

   1978, Richard Nixon, “The Presidency 1973–1974”, in RN: the Memoirs of Richard Nixon, Grosset & Dunlap, →ISBN, →LCCN, →OCLC, →OL, page 1078

   The failure on Wednesday to overturn Mr. Cooper’s veto was among the most dramatic consequences of Democratic legislative victories in North Carolina last November, which broke Republican supermajorities in both chambers and made it easier for Mr. Cooper’s vetos to survive.

   2019 May 6, Richard Fausset, “North Carolina Legislature Fails to Overturn Governor’s Veto of Anti-Abortion Bill”, in The New York Times

3. An authoritative prohibition or negative; a forbidding; an interdiction.

   This contemptuous veto of her husband's on any intimacy with her family.

   1876, George Eliot [pseudonym; Mary Ann Evans], chapter 44, in Daniel Deronda, volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC

4. A technique or mechanism for discarding what would otherwise constitute a false positive in a scientific experiment.

   An outer detector (OD) region will act as both a passive shield for low energy backgrounds and an active veto for cosmic ray muons.

   2021 J.R. Wilson and the Hyper-Kamiokande Collaboration 2021 J. Phys.: Conf. Ser. 2156 012153

present singular third person vetoes · participle present vetoing · participle past vetoed · past vetoed

1. transitiveTo use a veto against.

   The president vetoed the bill.

   3 more examples

   The railway was in fact shifted in 1937 a little to the west, over a distance of a quarter-mile, to make room for the by-pass at this point, but complete abandonment was firmly vetoed because of the proved strategic value of the line.

   1955 March, T. B. Sands, “The Didcot, Newbury & Southampton Railway—2”, in Railway Magazine, page 191

   Perhaps more notably, they also expect 25 percent of all Spac acquisitions to be vetoed by shareholders in 2008 — which will force those Spacs to liquidate.

   2008 April 15, “A Pullback for Spacs?”, in The New York Times DealBook, archived from the original on 11 Dec 2024, retrieved 18 Nov 2020

   Just a week after vetoing a ban on gender-affirming care for minors, Gov. Mike DeWine of Ohio issued an executive order on Friday banning gender-transition surgeries for anyone under 18 at state hospitals or ambulatory clinics.

   2024 January 5, Amy Harmon, “Ohio Governor Orders Restrictions on Transgender Care After Vetoing Ban”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 08 Apr 2024

2. transitiveTo countermand.

   Mom and Dad vetoed our menu preferences for the holiday meal.