abolish

American

[uh-bol-ish] / əˈbɒl ɪʃ /

verb (used with object)

to do away with; put an end to; annul; make void.

to abolish slavery.

Synonyms:

eliminate, extirpate, exterminate, extinguish, obliterate, annihilate, cancel, nullify, suppress

Antonyms:

establish

abolish British

/ əˈbɒlɪʃ /

verb

(tr) to do away with (laws, regulations, customs, etc); put an end to

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Related Words

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

abolishable adjective
abolisher noun
abolishment noun
unabolishable adjective
unabolished adjective
well-abolished adjective

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”

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023