Cancel, v. i. [Imp. & p. p. Canceled or Cancelled (; p. pr. & vb. n. Canceling or Cancelling.]
Etymology: [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. 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; 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.
3 more senses
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.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Cancel, n.
1. An inclosure; a boundary; a limit. [Obs.] 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. Jer. Taylor.
2. (Print) (a) The suppression on striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages. (b) The part thus suppressed.
Shades of meaning
Cancel, efface, erase, expunge, and obliterate have as their first meaning the removal of written characters or other forms of record. To cancel is, literally, to make a lattice by cross-lines, exactly our English cross out; to efface is to rub off, smooth away the face, as of an inscription; to erase is to scratch out, commonly for the purpose of writing something else in the same space; to expunge, is to punch out with some sharp instrument, so as to show that the words are no longer part of the writing; to obliterate is to cover over or remove, as a letter, as was done by reversing the Roman stylus, and rubbing out with the rounded end what had been written with the point on the waxen tablet. What has been canceled, erased, expunged, may perhaps still be traced; what is obliterated is gone forever, as if it had never been. In many establishments, when a debt is discharged by payment, the record is canceled. The figurative use of the words keeps close to the primary sense. Compare abolish.