repeal
verb (used with object)
to revoke or withdraw formally or officially.
repeal
American
[ri-peel]
/ rɪˈpil /
verb (used with object)
-
repeals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
repealed,
past participle, past
-
repealing
present participle
-
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.
- Synonyms:
- invalidate, rescind, abolish, nullify
noun
repeal
1
British
/ rɪˈpiːl /
verb
-
to annul or rescind officially (something previously ordered); revoke
these laws were repealed
-
obsolete to call back (a person) from exile
noun
Repeal
2
British
/ rɪˈpiːl /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
repealabilitynoun
-
repealablenessnoun
-
repealernoun
-
unrepealabilitynoun
-
nonrepealableadjective
-
repealableadjective
-
unrepealableadjective
-
unrepealedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
repealsimple
-
repealssimple
-
have repealedperfect
-
has repealedperfect
-
am repealingprogressive
-
are repealingprogressive
-
is repealingprogressive
-
have been repealingperfect progressive
-
has been repealingperfect progressive
Past
-
repealedsimple
-
had repealedperfect
-
was repealingprogressive
-
were repealingprogressive
-
had been repealingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of repeal
1275–1325; Middle English repelen < Anglo-French repeler, equivalent to re- re- + ( a ) peler to appeal
Explanation
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used in the context of law: When a government decides to get rid of an ordinance or law, that ordinance or law is repealed. That means it is no longer in effect, like if the weather becomes unseasonably hot, the schools might repeal the part of the dress code to permit students to wear shorts.
Vocabulary lists containing repeal
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Vocabulary from the Third and Final Presidential Debate, October 19, 2016
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The American Revolution - Introductory
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
“It’s well past time to review, revise and maybe even repeal it.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 17, 2026
There have been hunger strikes demanding farmers' rights, affirmative action, environmental protections, anti-corruption laws and the repeal of controversial security legislation.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
Apple has been one of the law's fiercest critics, calling on the EU to repeal the DMA last year.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
Morgan analyst Rajat Gupta noted, the decline is tied to several factors, including the repeal of federal EV tax credits and backlash tied to CEO Elon Musk’s stint in the U.S. federal government.
From MarketWatch ● Jul. 1, 2026
The protesters had issued an ultimatum, demanding that the government repeal the Black Act.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
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
Has Repeal, that in 'Forty was folly, Grown sense in Eighteen-seventy-two?
From Punch, or The London Charivari, Vol. 62, January 20, 1872 by Various
In agreeing to hear the pair of cases, the justices did not disturb the lower court rulings that blocked the repeals for now.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 16, 2026
Last week, the government introduced a new law that repeals and rebrands the scheme.
From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2025
A major wave of repeals took place in 1985, when Minnesota, South Carolina, and Texas eliminated their blue laws.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 20, 2025
This year’s bill repeals what’s left of it.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 30, 2024
By these repeals several of the most rigorous laws that ever had passed in England were annulled; and some dawn, both of civil and religious liberty, began to appear to the people.
From The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.I., Part C. From Henry VII. to Mary by David Hume
Because the GPO has been repealed, her teacher’s pension will no longer reduce or eliminate her spousal benefit.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
So many states had repealed so many firearm regulations that the District of Columbia’s stringent handgun ban looked like a true outlier.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026
Back in 2021, the government repealed agriculture laws after a year-long protest by farmers.
From BBC ● Jul. 25, 2026
By the time Prohibition was repealed in 1933, America was left not sobered, but hungover by its own contradictions.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 19, 2026
He opened South African beaches to people of all colors, and stated that the Reservation of Separate Amenities Act would soon be repealed.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
In 2020, I calculated that repealing the firewall would lead to $2.2 trillion in higher subsidy spending over a decade for the estimated 24 million people who would switch from employer coverage to the exchanges.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 11, 2026
“Changing that takes a lot more than repealing a law,” he said.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 23, 2026
By repealing Balogun's ban, it can only make life more difficult for them.
From BBC ● Jul. 5, 2026
However, repealing the earnings test would likely lead to more people claiming Social Security early, hastening the system’s impending insolvency.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026
It is as if anyone who proposed repealing a stupid law, like the one forbidding interracial marriage, must be a black-cloaked, bomb-clutching anarchist.
From "The Sense of Style" by Steven Pinker
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.
