Pa. pple. 5–7 abrogat, abrogate; 6– abrogated. [f. prec., or on analogy of vbs. so formed.]
1. To repeal (a law, or established usage), to annul, to abolish authoritatively or formally, to cancel.
1526. Tindale, Heb. viii. 13. In that he sayth a new testament he hath abrogat the olde.
1553. Wilson, Rhetorique, 24 b. They abrogate suche vowes as were proclaimed to be kept.
1649. Milton, Eikonokl., 46. Doubtless it repented him to have establish’d that by Law, which he went about so soon to abrogat by the Sword.
1666. Fuller, Hist. Cambr. (1840), 157. Thus was the pope’s power fully abrogated out of England.
1775. Burke, Sp. Concil. with Amer., Wks. III. 60. We wholly abrogated the ancient government of Massachuset.
1841. Myers, Cath. Thoughts, IV. § 26. 305. The Law of the Jews … was not rejected nor contradicted by the Gospel … but simply abrogated by being absorbed.
1862. Ld. Brougham, Brit. Constitn., i. 22. But the same power which formed these rules may abrogate or suspend them.
2. To do away with, put an end to.
1588. Shaks., L. L. L., IV. ii. 55. Perge, good M. Holofernes, perge, so it shall please you to abrogate scurilitie.
1634. T. Herbert, Travaile, 141. Others say all the world was a paradice till sinne abrogated its glory.
1851. Mrs. Browning, Casa Guidi Wind., 95. Pay certified, yet payers abrogated.
1855. Owen, Skel. & Teeth, 86. In the whales the movements of these vertebræ upon one another are abrogated.
