to revoke or withdraw formally or officially.
to repeal a grant.
to revoke or annul (a law, tax, duty, etc.) by express legislative enactment; abrogate.
to annul or rescind officially (something previously ordered); revoke
these laws were repealed
obsolete to call back (a person) from exile
1275–1325; Middle English repelen < Anglo-French repeler, equivalent to re- re- + ( a ) peler to appeal
To repeal something — usually a law, ordinance or public policy — is to take it back. For example, dog lovers might want the town council to repeal the law that says residents can have no more than four dogs. The verb repeal comes from the Anglo-French word repeler, “to call back.” Repeal is almost always used in the context of law: When a government decides to get rid of an ordinance or law, that ordinance or law is repealed. That means it is no longer in effect, like if the weather becomes unseasonably hot, the schools might repeal the part of the dress code to permit students to wear shorts.
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And she did, in a concise 22-page article published in the Seattle U. Law Journal last year titled “Pedaling Backward: Examining the King County Board of Health’s Choice to Repeal Its Bicycle Helmet Law.”
From Seattle Times • Apr. 21, 2024
Repeal came a few days later on Feb. 1, when Mayor Rolph cited a downturn in infections.
From New York Times • Aug. 3, 2020
Back then, it felt like a dream when I sat inside the court listening to both sides argue Petition 150 and Petition 234, now popularly known as Repeal 162.
From BBC • May 24, 2019
Their bill, the Forced Arbitration Injustice Repeal Act, would also disallow companies’ practice of forcing workers or consumers to give up their rights to bring a class action, a related impediment to justice.
From Slate • Mar. 1, 2019
The second enter'd into the particular Inconveniencies with which the various Clauses of the Edict would be attended, if his Majesty was not so far mov'd by those Reasons, as to order its Repeal.
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
