abrogate
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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abrogationnoun
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abrogatornoun
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abrogableadjective
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abrogativeadjective
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nonabrogableadjective
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unabrogableadjective
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unabrogatedadjective
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unabrogativeadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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abrogatesimple
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abrogatessimple
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have abrogatedperfect
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has abrogatedperfect
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am abrogatingprogressive
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are abrogatingprogressive
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is abrogatingprogressive
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have been abrogatingperfect progressive
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has been abrogatingperfect progressive
Past
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abrogatedsimple
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had abrogatedperfect
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was abrogatingprogressive
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were abrogatingprogressive
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had been abrogatingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of abrogate
1520–30; < Latin abrogātus repealed (past participle of abrogāre ). See ab-, rogation, -ate 1
Explanation
Abrogate means to abolish or avoid. When someone cuts in front of you in line, they are abrogating your right to be the next one served. When you cut in line, you are abrogating your responsibility to those who were in line before you. The Latin root of this word is made up of the prefix ab- "away" and rogare "to propose a law." What does it mean if you propose a law away? You repeal it, of course, so abrogate means to officially revoke, cancel or abolish. The meaning of this word has expanded a bit since its earliest usage, but it still appears most often in a legal or political context, or when serious rights and responsibilities are being discussed.
Vocabulary lists containing abrogate
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Dred Scott v. Sandford (1857)
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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:
Conversely, the department correctly found that the statute did not abrogate long-established privileges, including deliberative-process privilege, work-product privilege and attorney-client privilege.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 23, 2026
While there was pressure to abrogate the Indus Waters Treaty - a key river water sharing agreement - India opted instead to withhold any data beyond treaty obligations, Mr Bisaria writes.
From BBC ● May 2, 2025
Duterte took steps, which he later withdrew, to abrogate a key security agreement with the U.S. that allowed large numbers of American forces to enter the Philippines for combat exercises.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 29, 2023
“Wheatley’s acceptable rating this year does not abrogate my prior legal requirement to intervene based on the seven consecutive unacceptable ratings.”
From Washington Post ● Mar. 15, 2023
Here was the Prussian chance to induce her to abrogate her part in clause fifty of the peace treaty.
From Ten Years Near the German Frontier A Retrospect and a Warning by Egan, Maurice Francis
“When a statute and treaty rights conflict, the statue abrogates it,” she said.
From Reuters ● Oct. 22, 2021
There’s a reason why Ambrose Bierce described the telephone as “an invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable keep his distance.”
From Fox News ● Jul. 14, 2019
"South Korea has no official capacity to sign any agreement that abrogates the armistice agreement," said Bong Youngshik, a research fellow at Yonsei University's Institute for North Korean Studies in Seoul.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 18, 2018
It appears to me that the basic legality of a NDA which abrogates the constitutional right of free speech after entering into the agreement needs to be reconsidered.
From New York Times ● Apr. 13, 2018
It abrogates no treaties, and terminates without a treaty of peace.
From Letters to "The Times" upon War and Neutrality (1881-1920) by Holland, Thomas Erskine, Sir
Nixon abrogated the U.S. promise to maintain the dollar’s value in gold in 1971, the result of political pressures at the time, according to Jenkins.
From Barron's ● Jun. 5, 2026
Mr. Popkin explains that with this single sentence Napoleon’s new regime abrogated earlier constitutional provisions that “put the inhabitants of the country’s overseas territories under the same laws” as those in mainland France.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 27, 2026
Meanwhile, roadworks and maintenance, all but abrogated in recent years due to the government’s financial woes, have been in full swing.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 27, 2025
Sheikh Abdul Rashid, who had been in jail since Article 370 was abrogated in 2019, was granted interim bail earlier this month on terror funding charges he denies.
From BBC ● Sep. 25, 2024
She reestablished Sunday mass, suspended the use of red armbands, and abrogated the harebrained decrees.
From "One Hundred Years of Solitude" by Gabriel Garcia Marquez
Should we care about the deaths caused by abrogating our commitments?
From Salon ● Aug. 16, 2025
Ultimately the Coliseum Commission refused — thus abrogating the agreement — hence it was the City of Los Angeles that deserted the Raiders, not the other way around.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 15, 2019
Circuit ruling abrogating the government-attorney client privilege would be absent here.
From Slate ● Aug. 20, 2018
It is an issue that is often framed in moral terms, as though those managers who veer towards caution are in some way abrogating their sporting duty.
From New York Times ● Jan. 2, 2018
It was a deeply disturbing turn of events, essentially abrogating the Treaty of Versailles and undermining the foundations on which European peace had been built since 1919.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
