uncause

English[edit]

From un- (“reverse, undo”) +‎ cause (verb).

uncause (third-person singular simple present uncauses, present participle uncausing, simple past and past participle uncaused)

(transitive) To revert or undo the causing of an act or action
- 1909, Lionel Josaphare, The World of Suckers, page 75:
  The truth is simply this: that which causes marriage also uncauses it.
- 1987, K. B. Welton, Abortion is Not a Sin:
  Does the new soul, by itself, “cause” the conception? Can I then not uncause it?

From un- (“negative, contrary”) +‎ cause (verb).

uncause (third-person singular simple present uncauses, present participle uncausing, simple past and past participle uncaused)

(transitive) To block or withstand the causing of an act or action
- 2016, Dennis J. Baker, Reinterpreting Criminal Complicity and Inchoate Participation Offences:
  It is conceptually wrong to assert that a person makes a causal contribution to an act and its consequences when it is already being caused by others, simply because she fails to do some other act to uncause what is in progress.

From un- +‎ cause (noun).

uncause (uncountable)

Absence of cause
- 1979, Mario J. Rizzo, Time, Uncertainty, and Disequilibrium:
  Origin, in the last resort, means uncause. If what has taken form acknowledges no continuity, no inheritance, no necessity, then what has taken form, again in the extremest meaning, is a beginning.
- 2016, F. Frowen, G. L. S. Shackle, Business, Time and Thought:
  If uncause can enter the business of decision and liberate it from determinacy, its natural locus, we may think, is the origination of the sequels, in a sense more absolute than the mere putting together of ingredients.