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

The only thing that does not cancel out is the fee you pay for it.

From MarketWatch ● Jul. 29, 2026

Because Donaldjohanson's shape is uneven, those tiny forces do not cancel out completely and instead create a twisting effect that gradually alters the asteroid's rotation.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 25, 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

"But that doesn't make it OK," Pombo says, "one doesn't cancel out the other."

From BBC ● May 15, 2026

He’s the part of this equation I wish would just cancel out.

From "Dry" by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

Related Words

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