cancel (redirected from cancels)

cancel someone's Christmas

Sl. to kill someone; to destroy someone. (Underworld or jocular; the idea is that the dead person will not live until Christmas.) If he keeps bugging me, I'm gonna cancel his Christmas. Willie threatened to cancel Richard's Christmas if Richard didn't pay up.

See also: Christmas

cancel someone out of something and cancel someone out 

1. to eliminate someone from something (as from a list of names). We had to cancel them out. We canceled out all the people who did not show up.

2. Sl. to eliminate someone; to kill someone. The drug lord threatened to cancel out his former partner for testifying against him.

See also: out

cancel something out

to balance the effects of something. Sending flowers might cancel the bad feelings out. The last payment canceled out the debt.

See also: out

cancel each other out

[for the opposite effects of two things] to balance each other. The cost of the meal you bought and what I owed you cancel each other out, so we're even. They canceled out each other.

See also: each, other, out

cancel out (of something)

to withdraw from something. I hate to cancel out of the event at the last minute, but this is an emergency. It's too late to cancel out.

See also: out