abrogate
Other forms: abrogated; abrogating; abrogates
Abrogate means to abolish or avoid. When someone cuts in front of you in line, they are abrogating your right to be the next one served. When you cut in line, you are abrogating your responsibility to those who were in line before you.
The Latin root of this word is made up of the prefix ab- "away" and rogare "to propose a law." What does it mean if you propose a law away? You repeal it, of course, so abrogate means to officially revoke, cancel or abolish. The meaning of this word has expanded a bit since its earliest usage, but it still appears most often in a legal or political context, or when serious rights and responsibilities are being discussed.
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Vocabulary lists containing abrogate
Words selected by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionaries. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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On March 6, 1857, Chief Justice Roger B. Taney delivered the majority opinion in the Dred Scott Case. Scott, a slave, had been brought from a slave territory to a free territory and demanded his freedom. The Court ruled that as an enslaved person, Scott was not a citizen and could not sue in the courts. The decision further polarized the North and the South and ended any chance of compromise. This pro-slavery Supreme Court decision illuminates how the issue of slavery brought the nation to the brink of the Civil War. Read the full text here.