abolish
Americanverb (used with object)
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:
These tolls provided up to two-thirds of the kingdom’s annual income; it took an international trade conference to finally abolish them in 1857.
From Barron's ● May 22, 2026
The party says it would abolish business rates for all pubs, and is planning to set out more proposals to boost high streets in due course.
From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026
And some lawmakers in North Carolina seek to follow suit: A bill introduced in the state Senate last spring seeks to abolish both homewrecker laws.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 18, 2026
There was no urgent need to redefine the purpose and character of a museum, to abolish more than two centuries of acquired knowledge and start again.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 17, 2026
But all that was required to abolish this conceptual scheme was an insistence on direct as opposed to indirect experience.
From "The Invention of Science" by David Wootton
Some of this friction is inevitable; care tasks are cyclical, after all, and no system abolishes effort entirely.
From Salon ● Jan. 5, 2026
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
Brous called for “a new America that finally abolishes the heresy of white supremacy and enlists all of us in dismantling racism and lifting up a theology of radical equality.”
From Seattle Times ● Jan. 21, 2021
It abolishes all sympathy, all communion between the Father and the children.
From Modern Substitutes for Christianity by Muir, Pearson McAdam
Police and crime commissioners will be abolished as part of plans to devolve powers to Norfolk and Suffolk and create a mayorship covering the two counties.
From BBC ● Jul. 17, 2026
Following a number of other controversial executions and a series of miscarriages of justice it was permanently abolished for murder in 1969.
From Barron's ● Jul. 8, 2026
In the years that followed, the American people abolished slavery, amended a constitution that had accommodated it, expanded civil and political rights that had long been denied to millions, and became a great multiethnic democracy.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 2, 2026
Undue Medical Debt said it’s abolished more than $40 billion of medical debt in all 50 states.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 25, 2026
Then slavery would be constitutionally abolished once and for all.
From "Across Five Aprils" by Irene Hunt
An amendment abolishing slavery was passed by Congress in January 1865.
From Barron's ● Jun. 19, 2026
Michelle Guy of the Alliance Party proposed an amendment abolishing the defence of "reasonable punishment", which is available to parents and caregivers in some circumstances.
From BBC ● Jun. 7, 2026
Both leaders came with lofty goals, yet discussed methodical steps that included a 50 percent cut in strategic nuclear arms, with the ultimate target of abolishing the entire global nuclear stockpile by the year 2000.
From Slate ● Feb. 2, 2026
“They were respectful,” said Janerio Taylor, a longtime Minneapolis activist, who supports abolishing the police department but conceded respect for their efforts handling the scene and working to reduce crime in recent years.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jan. 29, 2026
In Virginia, however, laws abolishing primogeniture and entail had been passed during the Revolution.
From "Founding Brothers: The Revolutionary Generation" by Joseph J. Ellis
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.
