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The navy rescinded its ban on women sailors.
The company later rescinded its offer.
These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'rescind.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Rescind and the lesser-known words exscind and prescind all come from the Latin verb scindere, which means "to cut" or "to split." Rescind was adapted from its Latin predecessor rescindere in the second half of the 16th century, and prescind (from praescindere) and exscind (from exscindere) followed in the mid-17th century. Exscind means "to cut off" or "to excise," and prescind means "to withdraw one's attention," but neither appears frequently in contemporary English. Of the three borrowings, only rescind established itself as a common English term. You might hear of someone rescinding a contract or an offer, or of a legislative body rescinding a law.
First Known Use: 1579
in the meaning defined at sense 1
See Words from the same yearabandon, abort, call, call off, cancel, cry off, drop, recall, repeal, revoke, scrap, scrub;
abrogate, annul, invalidate, nullify, void, write off;
recant, retract, take back, withdraw;
countermand, reverse, roll back;
break off, discontinue, end, halt, stop, terminate;
: to end (a law, contract, agreement, etc.) officially : to say officially that (something) is no longer valid
See words that rhyme with rescind Thesaurus: All synonyms and antonyms for rescind Spanish Central: Translation of rescind Nglish: Translation of rescind for Spanish speakers Britannica English: Translation of rescind for Arabic speakers
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