different between cancel vs blur

English

Alternative forms

• cancell (obsolete)

Etymology

From Middle English cancellen, from Anglo-Norman canceler (“to cross out with lines”) (modern French chanceler (“unsteady move”)), from Latin cancell? (“to make resemble a lattice”), from cancellus (“a railing or lattice”), diminutive of cancer (“a lattice”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?kænsl?/
• Hyphenation: can?cel

Verb

cancel (third-person singular simple present cancels, present participle cancelling or (US) canceling, simple past and past participle cancelled or (US) canceled)

1. (transitive) To 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.

2. (transitive) To invalidate or annul something.

   He cancelled his order on their website.

   • 1914, Marjorie Benton Cooke, Bambi

     "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."

3. (transitive) To mark something (such as a used postage stamp) so that it can't be reused.

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

4. (transitive) To offset or equalize something.

   The corrective feedback mechanism cancels out the noise.

5. (transitive, mathematics) To remove a common factor from both the numerator and denominator of a fraction, or from both sides of an equation.
6. (transitive, media) To stop production of a programme.
7. (printing, dated) To suppress or omit; to strike out, as matter in type.
8. (obsolete) To shut out, as with a railing or with latticework; to exclude.
9. (slang) To kill.

   (The addition of quotations indicative of this usage is being sought:)

10. (transitive, neologism) To cease to provide financial or moral support to (someone deemed unacceptable). Compare cancel culture.
    • 2018, Jonah Engel Bromwich, in The New York Times [1]

    • 2019, Christopher Hooton, in VICE [2]

    • 2020 July 3, Kristi Noem speech at Mount Rushmore transcribed by C-SPAN[4]:

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

Synonyms

• (invalidate or annul): belay
• (kill): take care of; see also Thesaurus:kill
• (cease supporting someone deemed unacceptable): blacklist; see also Thesaurus:boycott

Derived terms

• autocancel
• cancel someone's Christmas
• cancel out
• canceler
• recancel
• cancelable
• precancel
• uncancel

Descendants

• ? Gulf Arabic: ????? (kansal)
• ? Welsh: canslo

Translations

Noun

cancel (plural cancels)

1. A cancellation (US); (nonstandard in some kinds of English).
   1. (Internet) A control message posted to Usenet that serves to cancel a previously posted message.
2. (obsolete) An 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.

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

Derived terms

• autocancel
• dumb cancel
• killer cancel
• mute cancel
• precancel

Translations

Related terms

• chancel
• cancellation
• chancellery
• chancellor
• chancery

Further reading

• cancel in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• cancel in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• cancel at OneLook Dictionary Search

Spanish

Noun

cancel m (plural canceles)

1. partition; wall

English

Etymology

From earlier blurre, probably an alteration of blear, from Middle English bleren, from Old English blerian. Compare Scots blore, bloar (“to blur, cover with blots”). More at blear.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bl?(?)/

Verb

blur (third-person singular simple present blurs, present participle blurring, simple past and past participle blurred)

1. To make indistinct or hazy, to obscure or dim.

2. To smear, stain or smudge.

3. (intransitive) To become indistinct.
4. To cause imperfection of vision in; to dim; to darken.
   • 1819, Joseph Rodman Drake, The Culprit Fay

     His eyes are blurred with the lightning's glare.

5. (obsolete, transitive) To sully; to stain; to blemish, as reputation.

   • Sarcasms may eclipse thine own, / But cannot blur my lost renown.

6. (graphical user interface, transitive) To transfer the input focus away from.
   • 2003, John Pollock, JavaScript: A Beginner's Guide, Second Edition (page 175)

     Then give this box focus to blur the first one: […]

   • 2001, Martin Webb, Michel Plungjan, Keith Drakard, Instant JavaScript (page 678)

     These form elements need to have an onFocus event handler to blur the current focus.

Synonyms

• (make indistinct or hazy): pixelate, smooth
• (move input focus from): unfocus

Antonyms

• sharpen

Translations

Noun

blur (plural blurs)

1. A smear, smudge or blot
2. Something that appears hazy or indistinct
3. (obsolete) A moral stain or blot.
   • 1548, Nicolas Udall, The first tome or volume of the Paraphrase of Erasmus vpon the newe testamente:

     […] with her raillyng sette a great blurre on myne honesty

Derived terms

• motion blur

Translations

Adjective

blur (comparative more blur, superlative most blur)

1. (Malaysia, Singapore, informal) In a state of doubt or confusion.

Anagrams

• Burl, burl