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Showing results for cancel out. Search instead for cancel+out.
Synonyms

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.

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.

The standard advice for a central bank facing a supply shock is to look past it, concluding that the hit to growth and the boost to inflation roughly cancel out.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 18, 2026

Two weeks later, higher gasoline and energy prices stemming from the conflict could cancel out the effects of those higher refunds, economists say.

From MarketWatch • Mar. 14, 2026

Further, you can’t simply cancel out the harms of consumption by putting all those clothes you purchased in hauls—at secondhand stores or otherwise—in your local donation bin when you’re done with them.

From Slate • Jan. 26, 2026

It can also cancel out disturbances that affect all of the atoms in the same way.

From Science Daily • Jan. 26, 2026

“You’d cancel out anything you did by giving me the memory,” said Harry.

From "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" by J.K. Rowling

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.