null and void
12
4.8
- idiom
- /nʌl ənd vɔɪd/
- Formal
:
nulo y sin efecto
- According to that book, that contract is null and void.
- declare null and void
- become null and void
Ah, lesbians are there and marriage is null and void.
- Ah, lesbians are there and marriage is null and void.
- Do them in smaller denominations as and when you're going to be using those gift cards to reduce the risk of that kind of all being null and void.
- Those who had lost money argued that the whole deal should be unwound and all share transactions that occurred over the six month period of the bubble should be made null and void.
- But I think actually I've realized it's null and void or void and null.
- And very quickly that breaks down and becomes a null and void response to fixing the recall issue.
Examples
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So, the ceremony was null and void.
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The contract is null and void because it was not signed by both parties.
-
The contract is null and void.
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The election results are null and void.
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If no members of their immediate family can join, then their vote is null and void.
Blog text (25) -
The legal institution of slavery was declared null and void.
Academic text (1992) -
From here on, all treaties with the Indian Nation are null and void.
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If we don't receive our money in a timely fashion, our lawyers will instruct the court to have your contract made null and void.
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I declare the previous treaty between the house of Amar and the house of Nesib null and void.
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In April, Tsvangirai and his ministers declared the indigenization program null and void, but Mugabe is still trying to make it official policy.
Academic text (2010)
Synonyms
69
4.7
Not accepted by law or no longer in effect
11
6.7
Not legally valid and so without legal effect
Made no longer valid by law
Not legally valid and cannot be used in court
Antonyms
How Valid
Surface Forms
Morphology
Both 'null' and 'void' individually denote lack of legal force, and the coordinating 'and' simply reinforces the same sense; the phrase is a legalistic tautology rather than an idiom. Because the combined meaning is directly derivable from the constituent meanings and follows a common cross-linguistic legal pattern, a B1 learner who knows the parts will understand the MWE.
Etymology
Null and void comes from old legal language where null meant 'no' and void meant 'empty', so judges put the two words together to show something had no power or effect at all. That's why null and void means 'having no legal force'.