different between cancel vs disannul

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 dis- +? annul.

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /d?s??n?l/

Verb

disannul (third-person singular simple present disannuls, present participle disannulling, simple past and past participle disannulled)

1. To annul, do away with; to cancel.
   • 1526, Bible, tr. William Tyndale, Matthew V:

     Ye shall not thynke that I am come to disanull the lawe, or the prophets.

   • , II.3.6:

     it is possible […] out of mature judgment to avoid the effect, or disannul the cause, as they do that are troubled with toothache, pull them quite out.