Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • transitive verb To make or declare void or invalid, as a marriage or a law; nullify.
  • transitive verb To bring to an end the effect or existence of; cancel out.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To reduce to nothing; annihilate; obliterate.
  • To make void or null; nullify; abrogate; abolish; do away with: used especially of laws, decrees, edicts, decisions of courts, or other established rules, usages, and the like.
  • Synonyms Abolish, Repeal, etc. (see abolish); Nullify, Annihilate, etc. (see neutralize); retract, declare null and void, supersede.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To reduce to nothing; to obliterate.
  • transitive verb To make void or of no effect; to nullify; to abolish; to do away with; -- used appropriately of laws, decrees, edicts, decisions of courts, or other established rules, permanent usages, and the like, which are made void by component authority.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb transitive To formally revoke the validity of.
  • verb transitive To dissolve (a marital union) on the grounds that it is not valid.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cancel officially
  • verb declare invalid

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English annullen, from Old French annuller, from Late Latin annullāre : Latin ad-, ad- + Latin nullus, none; see ne in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French anuller, from Latin annullō ("annihilate, annul"), from ad ("to") + nūllus ("none, not any").

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