annul

verb

an·nul ə-ˈnəl

annulled; annulling

transitive verb

: to declare or make legally invalid or void

wants the marriage annulled

His title to the estate was annulled.

: to reduce to nothing : obliterate

: to make ineffective or inoperative : neutralize

annul a drug's effect

Choose the Right Synonym for annul

nullify, negate, annul, abrogate, invalidate mean to deprive of effective or continued existence.

nullify implies counteracting completely the force, effectiveness, or value of something.

a penalty nullified the touchdown

negate implies the destruction or canceling out of each of two things by the other.

the arguments negate each other

annul suggests making ineffective or nonexistent often by legal or official action.

the treaty annuls all previous agreements

abrogate is like annul but more definitely implies a legal or official act.

a law to abrogate trading privileges

invalidate implies making something powerless or unacceptable by declaration of its logical or moral or legal unsoundness.

the court invalidated the statute

Example Sentences

unfortunately, his arrogant attitude annuls the many generous favors he does for people plans to annul their short-lived, ill-advised marriage

Recent Examples on the Web On Tuesday, Bolsonaro and his party filed a request for the electoral authority to annul votes cast on nearly 60% of electronic voting machines, citing a software bug in older models.

Diane Jeantet, ajc, 25 Nov. 2022 Supreme Court to order his release in 2019 and later annul the charges against him.

Ishaan Tharoor, Washington Post, 30 Oct. 2022 After Kenya’s last election, in 2017, Mr. Odinga got the Supreme Court to annul the first round of voting, only to lose again in the rerun.

Nicholas Bariyo, WSJ, 16 Aug. 2022 Biberaj has filed a petition with the Virginia Supreme Court asking it to annul the order disqualifying all 23 lawyers in her office from the Valle case.

Tom Jackman, Washington Post, 26 June 2022 The high court decided not to annul the appeals court decision, noting that because the case had become moot, secretaries of state would not be bound to follow the Court of Appeals ruling.

oregonlive, 16 Feb. 2022 His execution of Brexit, after three years in which members of Parliament had attempted to annul the referendum to leave the European Union, was a master class in sheer political willpower.

Gerard Baker, WSJ, 7 Feb. 2022 The home team appeared to have scored the go-ahead goal in the 40th minute when a shot from Mukhtar was saved by Gallese but quickly fumbled before Anibal Godoy slotted the rebound into the net, but was flagged offside to annul the goal.

Mike Gramajo, orlandosentinel.com, 23 Nov. 2021 Jesse Law, who ran the Trump campaign’s Election Day operations in Nevada, sued the Democratic electors, seeking to declare Trump the winner or annul the results.

Isaac Arnsdorf, ProPublica, 2 Sep. 2021 See More

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'annul.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.