annul, v.
(əˈnʌl)
Forms: 5–6 anulle, adnull(e, 5–7 adnul, annulle, 7– annul.
[a. OFr. anulle-r, adnuller (mod. annuler):—late L. annullā-re to make into nothing, f. an- = ad- to + null-um nothing, neut. of nullus none.]
1. To reduce to nothing, annihilate, put out of existence, extinguish.
| c 1400 Test. Love iii. (R.) Y⊇ crown of worship shal be taken from hem, with shame shul they be annulled. 1604 Edmonds Observ. Cæsar's Comm. 21 They endeuour not to be adnulled, but to keepe themselues in being. 1671 Milton Samson 70 Light..to me is extinct, And all her various objects of delight Annulled. 1843 Mill Logic iii. vi. §1 If two causes..exactly annul one another. |
2. To put an end or stop to (an action or state of things); to abolish, cancel, do away with.
| 1430 Lydg. Chron. Troy v. xxxvi, Grekes haue adnulled his fraunchyse. 1534 Ld. Berners Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546) B viij, Julius Cesar..adnulled and vndyd all that Sylla hadde made. 1795 Nelson in Nicolas II. 16 Signal to annul coming to the wind on the larboard tack. 1860 Emerson Cond. Life i. (1861) 17 Intellect annuls Fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free. 1876 M. Arnold Lit. & Dogma 105 The saviour of Israel is he who makes Israel..conquer and annul his sensuality. |
3. To destroy the force or validity of; to render void in law, declare invalid or of none effect.
| 1425 Paston Lett. 5. I. 19 His pretense of his title to the priourie of Bromholme is adnulled. 1506 Bury Wills (1850) 108, I anulle and revoke all the villes mad by for this date. 1531 Dial. Laws Eng. i. vi. (1638) 12 The first mariage was adnulled by that divorce. 1649 Selden Laws of Eng. ii. i. (1739) 7 The pardon of the Earl of Arundel is adnulled. 1667 Milton P.L. xii. 428 This God-like act..Annuls thy doom. 1786 T. Jefferson Writ. (1859) II. 70 It would be unjust to annul that contract. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 175 A bill, which should at once annul all the statutes passed by the Long Parliament. |