v. Forms: 5–6 anulle, adnull(e, 5–7 adnul, annulle, 7– annul. [a. OFr. anulle-r, adnuller (mod. annuler):—late L. annullā-re to make into nothing, f. an- = ad- to + null-um nothing, neut. of nullus none.]
1. To reduce to nothing, annihilate, put out of existence, extinguish.
c. 1400. Test. Love, III. (R.). Ye crown of worship shal be taken from hem, with shame shul they be annulled.
1604. Edmonds, Observ. Cæsar’s Comm., 21. They endeuour not to be adnulled, but to keepe themselues in being.
1671. Milton, Samson, 70. Light … to me is extinct, And all her various objects of delight Annulled.
1843. Mill, Logic, III. vi. § 1. If two causes … exactly annul one another.
2. To put an end or stop to (an action or state of things); to abolish, cancel, do away with.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, V. xxxvi. Grekes haue adnulled his fraunchyse.
1534. Ld. Berners, Gold. Bk. M. Aurel. (1546), B viij. Julius Cesar … adnulled and vndyd all that Sylla hadde made.
1795. Nelson, in Nicolas, II. 16. Signal to annul coming to the wind on the larboard tack.
1860. Emerson, Cond. Life, i. (1861), 17. Intellect annuls Fate. So far as a man thinks, he is free.
1876. M. Arnold, Lit. & Dogma, 105. The saviour of Israel is he who makes Israel … conquer and annul his sensuality.
3. To destroy the force or validity of; to render void in law, declare invalid or of none effect.
1425. Paston Lett., 5, I. 19. His pretense of his title to the priourie of Bromholme is adnulled.
1506. Bury Wills (1850), 108. I anulle and revoke all the villes mad by for this date.
1531. Dial. Laws Eng., I. vi. (1638), 12. The first mariage was adnulled by that divorce.
1649. Selden, Laws of Eng., II. i. (1739), 7. The pardon of the Earl of Arundel is adnulled.
1667. Milton, P. L., XII. 428. This God-like act … Annuls thy doom.
1786. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 70. It would be unjust to annul that contract.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., I. 175. A bill, which should at once annul all the statutes passed by the Long Parliament.
