Definitions

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

  • transitive verb To make null; invalidate.
  • transitive verb To counteract the force or effectiveness of.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To annul; make void; render invalid; deprive of force or efficacy.
  • Synonyms Annul, Annihilate, etc. See neutralize.

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

  • transitive verb To make void; to render invalid; to deprive of legal force or efficacy.

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

  • verb transitive, law to make legally invalid.
  • verb to prevent from happening

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

  • verb show to be invalid
  • verb declare invalid
  • verb make ineffective by counterbalancing the effect of

Etymologies

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

[Latin nūllificāre, to despise : nūllus, none; see ne in Indo-European roots + -ficāre, -fy.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

null +‎ -ify.

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Examples

  • Curb asks a judge to force McGraw to turn in new material for a fifth album, bar him from signing with another label and nullify a 2001 agreement that eliminated a sixth record from McGraw's contract.

    The Seattle Times 2011

  • At the tea parties, in the attempts by states including Virginia to "nullify" health care, and in parts of the originalism jurisprudence of conservatives on the Roberts Court, there is strong sense of nostalgia for the unamended Constitution and the ideas of our founding, even when those ideas have been repudiated by subsequent constitutional history and overruled or limited by constitutional Amendments.

    Doug Kendall: Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan, and Our Constitution Today 2010

  • But while such efforts serve as healthy political protest, federal laws that are constitutional are supreme under the 10th Amendment, and states can't "nullify" a Congressional action.

    ObamaCare and the Constitution 2010

  • But while such efforts serve as healthy political protest, federal laws that are constitutional are supreme under the 10th Amendment, and states can't "nullify" a Congressional action.

    ObamaCare and the Constitution 2010

  • But while such efforts serve as healthy political protest, federal laws that are constitutional are supreme under the 10th Amendment, and states can't "nullify" a Congressional action.

    ObamaCare and the Constitution 2010

  • At the tea parties, in the attempts by states including Virginia to "nullify" health care, and in parts of the originalism jurisprudence of conservatives on the Roberts Court, there is strong sense of nostalgia for the unamended Constitution and the ideas of our founding, even when those ideas have been repudiated by subsequent constitutional history and overruled or limited by constitutional Amendments.

    Doug Kendall: Thurgood Marshall, Elena Kagan, and Our Constitution Today 2010

  • The Repeal Amendment should not be confused with the power to "nullify" unconstitutional laws possessed by federal courts.

    The Case for a 'Repeal Amendment' Randy E. Barnett And William J. Howell 2010

  • Yet the distinction between this position, and the belief that states can "nullify" federal laws or even secede, seems unclear to many of the resolutions 'backers, as Perry's comments about secession demonstrated.

    Matt Sledge: Palin and Perry Skirt Secession 2009

  • Edward Lazarus, a Los Angeles lawyer and former federal prosecutor, has drawn a comparison between the state sovereignty resolutions and the Nullification Crisis of 1832-33, when South Carolina claimed the right to "nullify" unconstitutional federal law.

    Matt Sledge: Palin and Perry Skirt Secession 2009

  • Most people consider it as much an anachronism as the Third Amendment (which deals with "quartering troops"), but with the conservative bent of the current Supreme Court, who knows how they would rule on a state which decided to "nullify" a federal healthcare system?

    Chris Weigant: Emerging GOP Theme: Nullification 2009

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