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abrogate

UK/ˈæ.bɹə.ɡət/US/ˈæb.ɹəˌɡət/
verbC2Rare in speech; mostly a word you read · #14,934 of 15,258leans written

Other forms: abrogated, abrogating, abrogates

To abrogate is to cancel a law or an agreement by authority. Abrogate the treaty.

It needs the power that made the thing in the first place, which is what separates it from breaking one. To abrogate a responsibility is a looser use and means shrugging it off.

Definitions of abrogate

  1. 1verbabrogateTo cancel a law or an agreement by authority.C2

    “The new government moved to abrogate the whole agreement.”

abrogate is a cancelling.

Where it comes from

Latin abrogare means to repeal, from ab plus rogare, to propose a law.

  1. Latin

    abrogātus

  2. Middle English

    abrogat

  3. English, today

    abrogate

Built from

  • abrogō · Latin — repeal
  • ab · Latin — away
  • rogō · Latin — ask, inquire, propose

From Middle English abrogat, from Latin abrogātus. 1526, from Middle English abrogat (“abolished”), from Latin abrogātus, perfect passive participle of abrogō (“repeal”) (see -ate and -ate), formed from ab (“away”) + rogō (“ask, inquire, propose”). See rogation.

Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA

Practise this word

abrogate in the wild

  • Constitution did not give the United States Congress the power to abrogate the sovereign immunity of the states that is further protected under the Eleventh Amendment.

    Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida

  • Florida, the Supreme Court ruled that the Congress's authority, under Article One of the United States Constitution, could not be used to abrogate state sovereign immunity.

    Abrogation doctrine

  • Scanlon, 473 U.S. 234, was a United States Supreme Court case regarding Congress' power to abrogate the Eleventh Amendment sovereign immunity of the states.

    Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon

  • Bitzer, 427 U.S. 445, the Supreme Court had emphasized that Congress could abrogate state sovereign immunity pursuant to powers granted it by the Civil War Amendments.

    Atascadero State Hospital v. Scanlon

  • The winner was 13-year-old Dean Lucas of West Salem, Ohio (some sources say nearby Congress, Ohio, where he attended school), with the word abrogate.

    3rd Scripps National Spelling Bee

1 / 2

From Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0. These sentences were written by other people about their own subjects; they are here to show the word at work, not as anybody’s opinion.

Related words

the rogō family

interrogationsurrogate

abrogate — used about once every 159,543 pages · #14,934 · point at the bar for the others