revoke

Revoke means to take back, withdraw, or cancel.

Revoke is typically used in the context of officially taking back or cancelling some kind of right, status, or privilege that has already been given or approved. Passports and laws can be revoked, for example.

The process or an instance of revoking is called revocation.

A much more specific and less common sense of the word revoke is used in the context of card games, in which it means to break the rules by failing to follow suit when possible or required, such as in the game of bridge.

Example: The principal threatened to revoke our senior privileges if there are any pranks.

The first records of the word revoke come from the 1300s. It derives from the Latin verb revocāre, which means “to call back” or “to withdraw” and is a combination of re-, meaning “back” or “again,” and vocāre, “to call.” Vocāre is also the root of words like invoke, evoke, and provoke.

A right or privilege has to have been granted or approved in the first place before it can be called back or revoked. The word is often used in a legal context to refer to certain rights or credentials being taken away, such as a driver’s license. A person can have their access or status revoked as a punishment for breaking the rules or for other reasons. The same thing goes when revoke is used in less official or less serious contexts. For example, a parent might revoke a kid’s screen time as punishment for something.

The word is sometimes used humorously to suggest that some hypothetical credentials should be taken away for some kind of violation, as in You’re going to get your uncle card revoked if you forget your niece’s birthday again.

What are some other forms of revoke?

• revocation (noun)
• revocable (adjective)
• revoker (noun)
• revokingly (adverb)
• unrevoked (adjective)

What are some synonyms for revoke?

• cancel
• nullify
• rescind
• recall
• countermand
• annul
• withdraw
• repeal

What are some words that share a root or word element with revoke? 

• irrevocable
• evoke
• provoke
• invoke
• voice

What are some words that often get used in discussing revoke?

• credentials
• license
• passport
• right
• status
• privilege
• law

Revoke is commonly used in serious and official contexts, but it can be used in less serious ways.

Tonight the White House revoked @Acosta’s press pass. CNN’s response to @PressSec and @realDonaldTrump: pic.twitter.com/EY2iFLvP3P

— CNN Communications (@CNNPR) November 8, 2018

Don’t revoke my passport but I like her recipe.😄
My mother was a Gujarati.She had no idea what rajma was!
Nor did I till I went to school in Ajmer.
The bean came to us with the French & was planted in north india by Brits.
Let’s keep the dish open to interpretation! @tejalrao

— vir sanghvi (@virsanghvi) May 3, 2020

Yes,
I can revoke my consent.

No,
You don’t have a right to be angry.

— •3• (@dieyanara) June 13, 2020

Which of the following words is NOT a synonym of revoke?

A. reverse
B. rescind
C. reward
D. repeal