abolish
Americanverb (used with object)
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abolishes,
present (3rd person singular)
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abolished,
past participle, past
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abolishing
present participle
verb
Synonym Usage
Abolish, eradicate, stamp out mean to do away completely with something. To abolish is to cause to cease, often by a summary order: to abolish a requirement. Stamp out implies forcibly making an end to something considered undesirable or harmful: to stamp out the opium traffic. Eradicate (literally, to tear out by the roots ), a formal word, suggests extirpation, leaving no vestige or trace: to eradicate all use of child labor.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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abolishernoun
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abolishmentnoun
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abolishableadjective
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unabolishableadjective
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unabolishedadjective
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well-abolishedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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abolishsimple
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abolishessimple
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have abolishedperfect
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has abolishedperfect
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am abolishingprogressive
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are abolishingprogressive
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is abolishingprogressive
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have been abolishingperfect progressive
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has been abolishingperfect progressive
Past
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abolishedsimple
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had abolishedperfect
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was abolishingprogressive
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were abolishingprogressive
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had been abolishingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of abolish
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English, from Middle French aboliss-, long stem of abolir, from Latin abolēre “to destroy, efface”
Explanation
To abolish is to get rid of or annul. So when the principal yells at you for the 100th time for not having your shirt tucked in, it's safe to wish they'd just abolish the silly dress code. The word abolish might stir up some historical connotations, since in the U.S. it's commonly associated with bringing an end to slavery. In fact, those who opposed slavery were called "abolitionists." The word comes to us from the Latin word abolere, meaning "to destroy or cause to die out." These days abolish is used to bring a final and official-sounding end to laws, codes, and unsavory practices.
Vocabulary lists containing abolish
The Declaration of Independence
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List 1
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Life Is So Good
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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 also calls for the government to abolish the social care savings threshold for working-age people and equalise staff pay between social care and the NHS.
From BBC ● Aug. 14, 2026
He sought to create a selfless “New Man” and tried to abolish money.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Lebanon's parliament has voted to abolish the death penalty, a move that would make it the first country in the Middle East to formally end capital punishment.
From BBC ● Aug. 11, 2026
The country's biggest union, Unia, also warned the initiative would weaken labour protections, abolish rules barring discrimination between resident and foreign employees and "open the door wide to wage dumping".
From Barron's ● Jun. 9, 2026
Sprat went on to acknowledge that there were some hardliners who were so hostile to all aspects of ancient learning that they wanted to abolish Oxford and Cambridge.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
“He founded slave-free Georgia in 1733 and, 100 years later, England abolishes slavery,” followed by the U.S. in 1865, Thurmond said.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 16, 2024
The new version of the constitution also declares Uzbekistan a "social state" with increased welfare obligations, abolishes death penalty, establishes greater personal legal protection, and allows non-farming land ownership.
From Reuters ● Apr. 27, 2023
RIP’s model of buying debt at discount prices is especially attractive to donors because on average, every $1 donated abolishes about $100 in face value medical debt.
From Washington Post ● Mar. 3, 2023
"It simply abolishes what we already have," Prof Sampson told BBC News.
From BBC ● Feb. 9, 2023
But in doing this, it abolishes itself as proletariat, abolishes all class distinctions and class antagonisms, abolishes also the State as State.
From Socialism: Utopian and Scientific by Friedrich Engels
Roosevelt, a football enthusiast who feared the game might be abolished, summoned leaders from the college football powerhouses of the day—Harvard, Yale and Princeton—to the White House and demanded reform.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 13, 2026
Murrill told lawmakers last year that defending the state against these claims consumes an enormous amount of time and resources and that the fund should be abolished altogether.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
Anas Sarwar is pressed on his decision to join the House of Lords after previously saying it should be abolished.
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
“No, I don’t think Thanksgiving should be abolished, but let me tell you more about how groceries should be cheaper.”
From Slate ● Aug. 4, 2026
In every single American slave state, the population of enslaved people kept rising even after the slave trade was abolished.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
It recommended abolishing a scheme that allows people to retire early at 63, and expanding compulsory pension contributions to include civil servants and self-employed workers.
From Barron's ● Jun. 23, 2026
On Sunday, a federal judge in Baton Rouge granted Duncan’s request for a temporary restraining order, declaring the bill abolishing the criminal court clerk position to be unconstitutional.
From Slate ● May 5, 2026
Lincoln may be best known for saving the Union and abolishing slavery, but “Boss Lincoln” contends that “party organization” was “Lincoln’s life’s work.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 5, 2026
Ministers had promised a draft bill would be published before the end of the year, aimed at reforming the leasehold system in England and Wales and moving towards abolishing it.
From BBC ● Jan. 21, 2026
The group collected four hundred thousand signatures from women who supported the Thirteenth Amendment, abolishing slavery.
From "Votes for Women!" by Winifred Conkling
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.
