From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Cancel \Can"cel\, verb (used without an object) [imp. & p. p. {Canceled} or {Cancelled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Canceling} or {Cancelling}.] [L. cancellare to make like a lattice, to strike or cross out (cf. Fr. canceller, OF. canceler) fr. cancelli lattice, crossbars, dim. of cancer lattice; cf. Gr. ? latticed gate. Cf. {Chancel}.]
1. To inclose or surround, as with a railing, or with latticework. [Obs.]
A little obscure place canceled in with iron work is the pillar or stump at which . . . our Savior was scourged. --Evelyn.
2. To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude. [Obs.] ''Canceled from heaven.'' --Milton.
3. To cross and deface, as the lines of a writing, or as a word or figure; to mark out by a cross line; to blot out or obliterate.
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; though the phrase is now used figuratively for any manner of obliterating or defacing it. --Blackstone.
4. To annul or destroy; to revoke or recall.
The indentures were canceled. --Thackeray.
He was unwilling to cancel the interest created through former secret services, by being refractory on this occasion. --Sir W. Scott.
5. (Print.) To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
{Canceled figures} (Print), figures cast with a line across the face., as for use in arithmetics.
Syn: To blot out; obliterate; deface; erase; efface; expunge; annul; abolish; revoke; abrogate; repeal; destroy; do away; set aside. See {Abolish}.
Define.com is a registered nonprofit corporation dedicated solely to the global public interest and the advancement of humanity. It belongs to all of us who have a desire to promote electronic democracy, science, creativity, imagination, reason, critical thinking, peace, race and gender equality, civil rights, equal access to education, personal liberty, free speech, animal rights, compassionate and nonviolent parenting, social and economic justice, global monetary reform, Secular Humanism, cognitive liberty and a permanent cessation of The War on Drugs.
Let's see what we can do if we put our heads together.
0