cancel out

Idioms  

1. Neutralize the effect of, offset, render void. For example, Anne's kindness to her neighbor could not cancel out her irritability. The verb cancel was used in this way by itself from the late 1400s; out was added in the early 1900s.

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

cancel out

Multiply that across the market, and those advantages cancel out.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

Cook said in an interview published on Wednesday that Apple planned to raise its prices in a bid to cancel out the impact of surging memory and storage chip costs.

From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026

Research looking at how to protect the future of England's largest lake showed potential to "fully cancel out" the projected impact of climate change on it.

From BBC ● May 20, 2026

These repeated interactions can either build up or cancel out rotation.

From Science Daily ● May 7, 2026

The waves for these paths will not cancel out.

From "A Brief History of Time: And Other Essays" by Stephen Hawking

Related Words

• annihilate
• belie
• disallow
• disprove
• invalidate
• neutralize
• nullify
• rebut
• reverse
• undo
• vitiate
• void