Meaning & use
abrogate
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Meaning
verbtransitive
To formally cancel or end a law, agreement, treaty, or right by official authority.
Grammar: Takes an object: abrogate the treaty. It does not mean simply stop liking something.
Patterns
- abrogate a law
- abrogate a treaty
- abrogate an agreement
- abrogate someone's rights
The parliament voted to abrogate the old emergency law.
One country cannot simply abrogate a trade treaty without consequences.
Critics said the new rules would abrogate basic workplace rights.
Word forms
| third person singular | abrogates |
|---|---|
| past tense | abrogated |
| past participle | abrogated |
| -ing form | abrogating |
Common combinations
- formally abrogate
- The council formally abrogated the outdated ordinance.
- abrogate a treaty
- The government threatened to abrogate the treaty.
- abrogate an agreement
- The court ruled that the agency had unlawfully abrogated the agreement.
- abrogate constitutional rights
- The amendment was challenged for attempting to abrogate constitutional rights.
- unilaterally abrogate
- No member state may unilaterally abrogate the compact.
Synonyms and how they differ
- repeal
- Best for canceling a law or statute through a formal legal process.
- rescind
- Often used for canceling decisions, orders, or contracts, especially by the body that made them.
- revoke
- Commonly used for withdrawing rights, licenses, permissions, or privileges.
- annul
- Suggests declaring something legally invalid, as if it never properly existed.
Opposites
Word family
- abrogation noun
- The formal act of canceling a law, agreement, or right.
- abrogator noun
- A person or body that formally cancels a law or agreement.
- abrogative adjective
- Having the effect or character of formally canceling something; rare and formal.
Commonly confused: abrogate or abdicate? abrogate or abridge?
abrogate vs abdicate
Abdicate means give up a throne, office, or duty; abrogate means cancel a law, right, or agreement.
abrogate vs abridge
Abridge means shorten a text or limit rights slightly; abrogate means cancel formally.
Practice
Choose the best word: The senate voted to ___ the colonial-era statute.
Choose one answer.
A statute is a law, so the formal legal verb is abrogate. Abdicate fits a throne or duty, abridge means shorten, and adapt means adjust, not cancel.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “abrogate”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.