Word of the Day

: December 23, 2007

rescind

verb rih-SIND

What It Means

1 : to take away : remove

2 : take back : cancel

3 : to make void (as an act) by action of the enacting authority or a superior authority : repeal

rescind in Context

The union rescinded its call for a strike when management agreed to many of the workers' demands.

"… following a hearing before the Atomic Energy Commission in 1954, Oppenheimer's security clearance was rescinded." –Kai Bird et al., Smithsonian, August 2005

Did You Know?

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.