[(1) ad. L. cancelli (see CANCELLI); (2) f. following verb.]
† I. 1. pl. Prison bars, limits, bounds, confines. Chiefly fig. Obs.
1596. Fitz-Geffrey, Sir F. Drake (1881), 66. Bounded Within the cancels, that the world doe bound.
c. 1645. Sir E. Dering, in Rushw., Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 295. As Mr. Speaker is bounded in and limited, by the Rules and Cancels of this House.
1649. Jer. Taylor, Gt. Exemp., III. xiv. 14. A person whose spirit is confined … and desires no enlargement beyond the cancels of the body. Ibid. (a. 1667), Serm. (1678), 28. To put holy things into cancels, and immure them with acts and laws and cautions of separation.
II. 2. The act of striking out, erasing, annulling, rescinding, etc.
1884. Manch. Exam., 12 May, 4/4. If an order is fairly executed it is a rare thing to receive a cancel.
3. Print. The suppression and reprinting of a page or leaf. Hence concr. a. a page so cancelled or struck out; b. the new page substituted for that cancelled. Also cancel-page, -sheet.
1806. Southey, Lett. (1856), I. 394. Send me down a whole set of the sheets, that I may look them over, and see what cancels are necessary.
1824. D’Israeli, Cur. Lit. (Rtldg.), 459/2. It was his pride to read these cancels [suppressed by the censor] to his friends. Ibid. These cancel sheets or castrations.
1862. National Rev., Jan., 38. This title-page is a manifest cancel.
1872. J. A. H. Murray, Compl. Scotl., Introd. 33. The leaf is a cancel replacing the original 31.
4. Pair of cancels: an instrument for defacing or punching tickets (on the railway, etc.).
1887. Daily Tel., 11 April, 2/6. George Samuel Foster … was charged with stealing a pair of ticket cancels, the property of the District Railway Company.
1887. Standard, 18 April, 3/5. The charge of stealing a pair of ticket cancels.
