Definition of: cancel

(kan′səl) v.t. can·celed or·celled, can·cel·ing or ·cel·ling
1. To mark out or off, as by drawing or stamping lines across written matter to signify that it is to be omitted; blot or strike out; obliterate.
2. To remove, as by cutting out; suppress, as pages of a book.
3. To render null and void; annul, revoke, or set aside.
4. To make up for; compensate; neutralize; countervail.
5. To mark or ink (a postage stamp) to show that it has been used.
6. Math. To eliminate (a common factor, as a figure or quantity) from the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.
—noun In printing and bookbinding, the striking or cutting out, omission, or suppression of a leaf, leaves, or any part of any printed matter or work; also, any printed matter thus suppressed, or the matter substituted for that stricken out. [<MF canceller <L cancellare cross out < cancelli, dim. plural of cancer lattice] Synonyms (verb): abolish, abrogate, annul, discharge, efface, erase, expunge, nullify, obliterate, quash, remove, repeal, rescind, revoke, vacate. Cancel, efface, erase, expunge, and obliterate have as their first meaning the removal of written characters or other forms of record. To cancel is, literally, to make a lattice by cross lines, exactly our English cross out; to efface is to rub off, smooth away the face of, as of an inscription; to expunge is to punch out with some sharp instrument, so as to show that the words are no longer part of the writing; to obliterate is to cover over or remove, as a letter, as was done by reversing the Roman stylus, and rubbing out with the rounded end what had been written with the point on the waxen tablet. What has been canceled, erased, expunged, may perhaps still be traced; what is obliterated is gone forever, as if it had never been. The figurative use of the words keeps close to the primary sense. Compare ABOLISH, ANNUL. Antonyms: approve, confirm, enact, enforce, establish, maintain, perpetuate, record, reenact, sustain, uphold.