rule out | Idiomator

Meaning: (transitive)To cross an item out by drawing a straight line through it, as with a ruler.; (idiomatic,transitive)Torejectan option from a list ofpossibilities.As Jane Doe had an alibi, the police were able toruleheroutas a suspect.1960December, “The first hundred 25 kV a.c. electric locomotives for B.R.”, inTrains Illustrated, page726:In general, steel springs were stipulated for primary suspension, although rubber was accepted for auxiliary springing; hydraulic dampers were specified and the use of laminated springsruled out.2013January 3, Luke Harding, Uki Goni,The Guardian‎[1]:The Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) has categoricallyruled outany new negotiations saying the future of the Falklands can only be decided by the islanders themselves in accordance with the UN principle of self-determination.2014September 12, “Deadly New Taipei blaze: arson suspected”, inFocus Taiwan‎[2], archived fromthe originalon03 October 2022, Society‎[3]:Arson has not beenruled outin a fire that broke out Friday in Yungho, New Taipei, causing one death and 24 injuries, the city's fire department said that day.2020April 8, “Network News: MML still on electrification agenda”, inRail, page23:Electrification of the Midland Main Line has not beenruled out.2025June 26, Kasra Naji, “When Iran's supreme leader emerges from hiding he will find a very different nation”, inBBC‎[4]:He would be well advised to be cautious, despite the fragile ceasefire that the US President Donald Trump and the Emir of Qatar brokered. Though President Trump reportedly told Israel not to kill Iran's supreme leader, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu did notrule it out.; (idiomatic,transitive)To make somethingimpossible.The constant rainruled outany chance of a game of tennis.; (transitive)Todisallow.2010December 29, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0 - 1 Wolverhampton”, inBBC‎[5]:And Martin Skrtel's late headed goal was rightlyruled outfor offside.; (transitive)To makeunavailable.2014November 14, Stephen Halliday, “Scotland 1-0 Republic of Ireland: Maloney the hero”, inThe Scotsman‎[6]:Flair and invention were very much at a premium, suffocated by the relentless pace and often fractious nature of proceedings. The absence of James Morrison from the centre of Scotland’s midfield, the West Brom manruled outon the morning of the game by illness, had already diminished the creative capacity of the home side in that department.

Examples:

EN: We can rule out the other one.
ES: - Dos. ¿Para quién es el otro?
EN: Did you rule out the alkaloids?
ES: ¿Eliminaste la posibilidad de alcaloides?
EN: And I rule out any possibility that my wife ever received it.
ES: Y niego terminantemente que mi mujer la haya recibido. ¡Es una infamia!
EN: He threw up a bit, but we can rule out a cerebral concussion.
ES: Algo contraído el estómago, pero no padece conmoción cerebral.
EN: Now when I saw you this morning, I explained that I only wanted the information to rule out the story which Robinson told Major Watson.
ES: Cuando le he visto esta mañana, le expliqué que solo quería la información que excluyera la historia que Robinson le contó al Mayor Watson.
EN: You know, there's one thing it'd be pretty tough to rule out.
ES: Hay algo que sería muy difícil de descartar.
EN: We don't entirely rule out the possibility that there might be some form of life on another planet.
ES: No descartamos la posibilidad de vida en otros planetas.
EN: Can we rule out that it wasn't an accident?
ES: ¿Es forzoso excluir que pueda tratarse de un accidente?
EN: With Ehrlich 's fuel range, we could rule out the vast Pacific toward the west.
ES: Con su alcance del combustible, descartamos el oeste del Pacífico.
EN: Well, and our plan to rule out the psycho angle?
ES: ¿Como para eliminar el efecto psicológico?
EN: Yeah. We can rule out the explosion idea.
ES: Podemos descatar la idea de la explosión.
EN: You can rule out anger. Hm-mmm.
ES: Puede descartar la ira.
EN: You will agree that we can rule out a crime of passion, hm?
ES: Estará de acuerdo en que podemos descartar un crimen pasional.
EN: The guilt of one doesn't rule out the responsibility of everyone else.
ES: La culpabilidad de uno no anula la responsabilidad de los demás.
EN: So we can rule out the suicide hypothesis, right?
ES: Entonces podemos descartar la hipótesis del suicidio ¿no?

Note: the examples for non latin scripts have a high likelihood of mistakes, we do not own any of this data and it is sourced from Wiktionary, the NLLB database and Opensubtitles. Please help us improve this by contributing correct examples. We will be working to fix this issue over time however it is a bigger issue due to the the difficulties in dealing with non latin scripts and grammatical structures(non-romantic/european languages have lower resources as well ).