rog-, roga-, -rogate, -rogation, -rogatory

1. To abolish or to annul by authority; to nullify, to cancel: Congress once passed laws prohibiting the sale of liquor in the U.S., however the 20th Amendment to the Constitution abrogated those laws and now alcohol may be legally sold.

The Secretary of State declared that further aggressive action by a certain foreign power would cause the government to abrogate the treaty it had made with that country.

Mr. Jackson and the Board of Directors at the museum decided to abrogate entrance fees for senior citizens.

2. To repeal, to eliminate, or to get rid of something formally and publicly, especially a law: The king decided to abrogate the old law regarding poaching during the summer holidays.

The new law abrogated the old law about paying parking fines.

They will be abrogating the decision to increase student grants after the next election.

3. Etymology: from Latin ab-, "away" + rogare, "to ask, to propose". © ALL rights are reserved.
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1. The cancellation or nullification of something in a formal and official way: The abrogation of the treaty took place when there was evidence which suggested that the other nations had failed to honor the agreements.
2. An official or legal cancellation because of the failure of someone to do what is required: The company lost the government contract when the abrogation of their costs of construction exceeded the limits.

Congress was expected to have an abrogation of the tax law.

1. The state or quality of being overbearing with pride: It was Jaden's arrogance that made him believe he could treat the woman so badly and still get by with it.
2. An offensive display of superiority or self-importance: The group was shocked by the arrogance of Mildred's comments during the meeting.

1. An attitude of superiority manifested in a domineering manner or with presumptuous claims or assumptions: Mrs. Anderson, the supervisor, was admired for her competence, but she developed a strong dislike among the employees for her arrogancies when she ordered them to do more than normally required.
2. A disagreeable behavior: Henry was asked to leave the room because his arrogancy was offending everyone there.

1. Characterized by feeling or showing conceit and contempt, or disregard, for others: The arrogant attorney was given a warning by the judge to take it easy when cross-examining the witness.
2. Pertaining to having or displaying a sense of overbearing self-worth or self-admiration because a person believes that he or she is better, smarter, or more important than other people: Hank is the top student in the class, but he has an arrogant attitude when he criticizes his fellow class mates.

Lina is the highest rated student in her class; however, she is not arrogant about it!

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A reference to being marked by, or arising from, a feeling or assumption of one's superiority towards other people: The boss's son, Burton, was arrogantly overbearing and haughty towards the other workers.

1. To claim, to take, to appropriate, or to assume for oneself without a right to do it: Bruce arrogated to himself the powers of a military General in his position as the CEO of the company.

Some presidents have arrogated to themselves the power of Congress to declare war.

2. To assign or to attribute to another person without justification: Judge Hendricks accused Jane of arrogating to herself the power and the right to punish people. © ALL rights are reserved.
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1. A claim to, or a seizure, without justification: The university police were condemned for using arrogations to arbitrarily pepper spray the demonstrating students and arresting them when they complained about the pains in their eyes.
2. The unjust assumption of rights, or privileges, to something of which a person does not have rights for or privileges to: The arrogations of the French aristocracy are said to have helped lead to the French Revolution.

1. To take away; to belittle or seek to lower by suggesting that something or someone is not important or worthy of respect: To derogate a person’s authority is to undermine it, and to derogate someone’s rights is to restrict them.

The queen felt that summoning a parliament would derogate her royal authority.

The book derogated the achievements of the former president of the company.

Jim, the coach, derogated just about everything the new player, Dudley, did on the football field.

2. To stray from a standard or expectation; to deviate: Jason committed an intellectual error that will derogate his reputation as a scholar.

1. A partial repeal, or abolition, of a law: The state government passed a derogation of some social services because it was costing too much to maintain them.
2. A deviation from a rule or law; especially, one which is specifically provided for: The Senate Committee required new data in order to determine which sectors of the law would qualify for the derogation.
3. The act of belittling, or criticizing, someone or something: Gary, the radio talk-show host, used derogations to discredit the politician's positions on how to improve the nation's economic situation.

Tending to be detractive or disparaging: The way some politicians are making so many derogative remarks about their fellow political party candidates causes some people to think negatively about all of those who are running for that party's office.

Pertaining to speaking about someone in a disrespectful way: Ralph was a good manager in that at least he never derogatively criticized an employee in front of the other workers.

1. Conveying an expression of criticism or a low opinion: Maxine was accused of making derogatory remarks about her employer because she said that he was always trying to control every detail of what the workers were doing instead of letting them complete their assignments without constantly badgering or pestering them.
2. A reference to tendencies to diminish the merits or reputations of people or things: The Republican candidates have been making too many derogatory remarks about each other which provides the Democrats with all kinds of reasons for the voters not to vote for any Republicans. © ALL rights are reserved.
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1. A punctuation mark in the form of a question mark superimposed on an exclamation point, used to end a simultaneous question and an exclamation: The typesetter at the newspaper had a difficult time creating an interrabang for the lead article.
2. A rarely used, nonstandard English-language punctuation mark (‽) intended to combine the functions of a question mark and an exclamation point: The bang in interrobang is a printer's slang term for an exclamation point. 3. Etymology: interro(gation point) + bang, "exclamation point (printers' slang)."

The typographical character resembles those marks superimposed one over the other. In informal writing, the same effect is achieved by placing the exclamation point after or before the question mark; for example, "What?!" or "What!?".

A sentence ending with an interrobang either asks a question in an excited manner or expresses excitement or disbelief in the form of a question: "What? You forgot to put gas in the car?!"

1. To question someone thoroughly, often in an aggressive or threatening manner and especially as part of a formal investigation; such as, in a police station or courtroom: The police were interrogating the witness about the auto accident.
2. To transmit a request to a computer program, or device, for information: Henry's computer interrogated the printer to determine the status of the printing job. © ALL rights are reserved.
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