set aside — annul legally
phrasal verbC2IELTS 8+formalrare
to officially cancel or annul a legal decision, judgment, or order so that it is no longer valid.
Say it like a native
Textbook The appellate court invalidated the lower court's ruling.
Native The court set aside the original verdict.
'Set aside' is the standard legal term for annulling a judgment; 'invalidated' is a loose paraphrase.
Pattern: set aside + noun (legal decision/verdict/ruling)
In use
- The court set aside the previous ruling due to new evidence.law
- In some cases, a conviction may be set aside if it is proven that the defendant did not receive a fair trial.IELTS speaking
Common mistake
✗ The judge set away the conviction.
✓ The judge set aside the conviction.
The legal phrase is 'set aside' (annul), not 'set away'.
Common collocations
set aside + ruling— the verdict, the conviction, the judgment, the order
Don't confuse it
Unlike the B1 sense ('save for a purpose') and the B2 sense ('ignore or not consider'), this sense is specific to legal contexts and means to make a legal decision invalid.
Related
- set aside (save for a particular purpose) — 'set aside' also has the more basic meaning 'save for a particular purpose'; this is the advanced sense.