repeal
verb (used with object)
to revoke or withdraw formally or officially.
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repeal
American
[ri-peel]
/ rɪˈpil /
verb (used with object)
-
repeals,
present (3rd person singular)
-
repealed,
past participle, past
-
repealing
present participle
-
to revoke or withdraw formally or officially.
to repeal a grant.
-
to revoke or annul (a law, tax, duty, etc.) by express legislative enactment; abrogate.
- Synonyms:
- invalidate, rescind, abolish, nullify
noun
repeal
1
British
/ rɪˈpiːl /
verb
-
to annul or rescind officially (something previously ordered); revoke
these laws were repealed
-
obsolete to call back (a person) from exile
noun
Repeal
2
British
/ rɪˈpiːl /
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
-
repealabilitynoun
-
repealablenessnoun
-
repealernoun
-
unrepealabilitynoun
-
nonrepealableadjective
-
repealableadjective
-
unrepealableadjective
-
unrepealedadjective
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
repealsimple
-
repealssimple
-
have repealedperfect
-
has repealedperfect
-
am repealingprogressive
-
are repealingprogressive
-
is repealingprogressive
-
have been repealingperfect progressive
-
has been repealingperfect progressive
Past
-
repealedsimple
-
had repealedperfect
-
was repealingprogressive
-
were repealingprogressive
-
had been repealingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of repeal
1275–1325; Middle English repelen < Anglo-French repeler, equivalent to re- re- + ( a ) peler to appeal
Explanation
To repeal something — usually a law, ordinance or public policy — is to take it back. For example, dog lovers might want the town council to repeal the law that says residents can have no more than four dogs. The verb repeal comes from the Anglo-French word repeler, “to call back.” Repeal is almost always used in the context of law: When a government decides to get rid of an ordinance or law, that ordinance or law is repealed. That means it is no longer in effect, like if the weather becomes unseasonably hot, the schools might repeal the part of the dress code to permit students to wear shorts.
Vocabulary lists containing repeal
The Vocabulary.com Top 1000
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Vocabulary from the Third and Final Presidential Debate, October 19, 2016
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The American Revolution - Introductory
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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:
In the immediate aftermath of the repeal of the proposed legislation, this academic postmortem, published in the monthly peer-reviewed journal Health Affairs, speculated that the MCCA’s failure was, indeed, partly due to financial reasons.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 18, 2026
Circuit Court of Appeals ruling, which held the FCC is required by federal law to repeal or modify regulations that are no longer in the public interest.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 9, 2026
The repeal was slated to go into effect in December 2028.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
There have been hunger strikes demanding farmers' rights, affirmative action, environmental protections, anti-corruption laws and the repeal of controversial security legislation.
From BBC ● Jul. 16, 2026
As the news of the repeal was broadcast over the radio, stores like New York’s Gimbels and Bloomingdale’s immediately opened their liquor departments.
From "1919 The Year That Changed America" by Martin W. Sandler
Repeal of the Iraq War authorizations goes next to the House.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 29, 2023
“They did that through canvassing: going door-to-door, knocking, and having conversations,” said Sinéad Kennedy, a member of Together for Yes’ national executive committee and co-founder of the Coalition to Repeal the Eighth Amendment.
From Slate ● Sep. 16, 2022
“This is just about giving those workers some power,” said Michelle Woolley, head of the Coalition to Repeal Right-to-Work.
From Washington Post ● May 5, 2021
Repeal came a few days later on Feb. 1, when Mayor Rolph cited a downturn in infections.
From New York Times ● Aug. 3, 2020
The sub-leaders became impatient of delay, assumed a defiant tone, and demanded that the non-resistant doctrines of O'Connell be repudiated by the National Repeal Association.
From Sketches of Reforms and Reformers, of Great Britain and Ireland by Henry B. Stanton
Last week, the government introduced a new law that repeals and rebrands the scheme.
From BBC ● Dec. 22, 2025
A major wave of repeals took place in 1985, when Minnesota, South Carolina, and Texas eliminated their blue laws.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 20, 2025
The new policy repeals the previous code, which banned camping only at parks and the beach.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 27, 2025
This year’s bill repeals what’s left of it.
From Seattle Times ● Apr. 30, 2024
How doubtful are his hopes, how sure his pain, And how his faithful promise he repeals.
From The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 2 Jewish poems: Translations by Emma Lazarus
Arkansas, Montana and South Carolina voluntarily repealed racial quotas for public bodies after lawsuits based on the Equal Protection Clause.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 17, 2026
This law repealed the Windfall Elimination Provision and Government Pension Offset, which previously reduced Social Security payments for many public-sector retirees like your wife.
From MarketWatch ● Aug. 10, 2026
So many states had repealed so many firearm regulations that the District of Columbia’s stringent handgun ban looked like a true outlier.
From Slate ● Aug. 3, 2026
The charter amendment ballot measure approved Tuesday would avoid that result and restore the inadvertently repealed funding.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 28, 2026
These record losses took place during Prohibition itself, so perhaps Elizebeth drew a breath of relief when the policy was repealed in 1933.
From "The Woman All Spies Fear" by Amy Butler Greenfield
But it soon became clear that repealing the previous legislation was one thing; how to replace it quite another.
From BBC ● Jul. 20, 2026
However, repealing the earnings test would likely lead to more people claiming Social Security early, hastening the system’s impending insolvency.
From MarketWatch ● Jun. 15, 2026
Tuesday's vote came after the lower house last week backed repealing outdated slavery legislation that was never annulled despite the practice being abolished in 1848.
From Barron's ● Jun. 2, 2026
State lawmakers are also considering avenues to raise revenue, which include repealing a “water’s edge” tax break.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 3, 2026
Professor Dash asked me whether I took any encouragement from the government’s stated intention of repealing die mixed-marriage laws and certain other apartheid statutes.
From "Long Walk to Freedom" by Nelson Mandela
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.
