Abrogate

WORD OF THE DAY

abrogate / verb / AB-ruh-gayt

Definition
1a (formal): to abolish by authoritative action
1b: annul
2a (formal): to treat as nonexistent
2b: to fail to do what is required by (something, such as a responsibility)
3 (formal): to suppress or prevent (a biological function or process, especially an immune response)

Example
"There have been a lot of bad days for the climate in the Australian parliament.... Too many bad days. A dark period where the Liberal and National parties abrogated a core responsibility of being a governing party—the responsibility to face the future."
— Katharine Murphy, The Guardian (London), 3 Aug. 2022

 Did You Know?
If you can't simply wish something out of existence, the next best thing might be to "propose it away."
That's more or less what abrogate lets you do—etymologically speaking, at least.
Abrogate comes from the Latin root rogāre, which means "to propose a law," and ab-, meaning "from" or "away."
Proposals aside, there’s no abrogating our responsibility to report that rogāre is the root of a number of English words, including prerogative, derogatory, arrogant, surrogate, and interrogate.