Other forms: overruled, overruling, overrules
To overrule is to decide against a lower court or an objection. Overrule the objection, overruled on appeal, the judge overruled him.
In court it is what a judge says to reject an objection, and it is also what a higher court does to a lower one's precedent. Outside law it means overriding somebody's decision by authority. Note the over- meaning above.
1verboverruleTo decide against a lower court or an objection.
“The judge overruled the lawyer's objection and allowed the question.”
overrule is a deciding against.
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃reǵ-
Proto-Indo-European
*h₃réǵeti — to straighten; right
Latin
regula — straight stick, bar, ruler, pattern
Old French
riule
Middle English
reule
English
rule
English, today
overrule
Built from
From over- + rule. rule comes from Middle English reule, rewle, rule, borrowed from Old French riule, reule, from Latin regula (“straight stick, bar, ruler, pattern”), from regō (“to keep straight, direct, govern, rule”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European h₃réǵeti (“to straighten; right”), from the root h₃reǵ-; see regent. a doublet of rail and regal#Noun and regula and rigol.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA