invalidate
v.to show that something is not true or correct. You use this when a fact or a rule no longer works because of new information.
v.to show that something is invalid or not true; to render a legal document or rule ineffective. Transitive — requires a direct object.
“New evidence can invalidate an old theory.”
“The judge invalidated the contract because one of the signers was not legally competent at the time.”
“The discovery of a significant error in the original data invalidated the entire study, forcing the researchers to begin the experiment from scratch with a larger sample size.”
First attested in 1649; borrowed from Middle French invalider, from invalide + -er. By surface analysis, in- + validate or invalid + -ate.
Etymology adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.