to make something inactive or ineffective: to strip it of its force so it no longer works, whether by nullifying it, abolishing it, or setting it aside
At its root this word means to make something idle or out of work. From that one idea the New Testament stretches it across a wide range, and no single English word covers it all. Depending on what is being made ineffective, translators reach for nullify, abolish, destroy, do away with, fade, pass away, release, or use up.
The common thread is that some power or effect is shut down. Sometimes the thing itself remains but loses its grip: faithlessness cannot cancel God's faithfulness, and Paul insists that the good news does not throw out the law. Sometimes the thing is brought to an end outright: death, hostile rulers, and the barrier of the commandments are all done away with in Christ. Sometimes something temporary simply fades and becomes obsolete, the way the partial knowledge of this life gives way to full sight. And in its passive form it can describe a person being released from a bond, discharged as if the tie no longer holds.
Because the verb is overwhelmingly Paul's word (nearly all its uses are in his letters), it carries the weight of his theology: the old order, its powers, and even death itself have had their authority broken by the cross and resurrection.