Definition of "cancel" in English

verb

1. (transitive) To cross out something with lines etc.

2. (transitive) To invalidate or annul something.

   • He cancelled his order on their website.

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.

10. (transitive, neologism) To cease to provide financial or moral support to (someone deemed unacceptable); to disinvite. Compare cancel culture.

    • To attempt to cancel the founding generation is an attempt to cancel our own freedoms.

noun

1. (US) A cancellation.

2. (obsolete) An enclosure; a boundary; a limit.

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.