Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Cancel?

\Can"cel\, v. i. [imp. & p. p. {Canceled} or {Cancelled}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Canceling} or {Cancelling}.] [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. ? latticed gate. Cf. {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; though 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. 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}.
\Can"cel\, n. [See {Cancel}, v. i., and cf. {Chancel}.] 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 or striking out of matter in type, or of a printed page or pages. (b) The part thus suppressed.