abolish
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Related Words
Abolish, eradicate, stamp out mean to do away completely with something. To abolish is to cause to cease, often by a summary order: to abolish a requirement. Stamp out implies forcibly making an end to something considered undesirable or harmful: to stamp out the opium traffic. Eradicate (literally, to tear out by the roots ), a formal word, suggests extirpation, leaving no vestige or trace: to eradicate all use of child labor.
Other Word Forms
- abolishable adjective
- abolisher noun
- abolishment noun
- unabolishable adjective
- unabolished adjective
- well-abolished adjective
Etymology
Origin of abolish
First recorded in 1425–75; late Middle English, from Middle French aboliss-, long stem of abolir, from Latin abolēre “to destroy, efface”
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.
Given such concerns, to say nothing of the general inconvenience associated with daylight-saving time, it’s no surprise that there have been a growing number of calls to abolish the back-and-forth clock changing.
From MarketWatch • Mar. 6, 2026
If we abolish SRG, we will have to reinvent it later.
From The Wall Street Journal • Feb. 23, 2026
Traditionally, they vote once in every parliament on a republican motion to abolish the monarchy and the motion came up by coincidence on Tuesday.
From BBC • Feb. 3, 2026
Cinthya Martinez, a UC Santa Cruz professor who has studied the movement to abolish ICE, noted that it stems from the movement to abolish prisons.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 18, 2026
Cane sugar had brought millions of Africans into slavery, then helped foster the movement to abolish the slave trade.
From "Sugar Changed the World: A Story of Magic, Spice, Slavery, Freedom, and Science" by Marc Aronson
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.
