quash / kwôsh; kwäsh/ • v. [tr.] reject or void, esp. by legal procedure: his conviction was quashed on appeal. ∎  put an end to; suppress: a hospital executive quashed rumors that nursing staff will lose jobs.

QUASH

To overthrow; to annul; to make void or declare invalid; e.g., "quash a subpoena."

Unreasonable, obviously irregular, or oppressive subpoenas, injunctions, indictments, and orders can be quashed by a court. For example, if jurors have been selected improperly, the court can quash the proceedings.

In criminal cases, if an indictment is defective to such a degree that no judgment could be made if the defendant were to be convicted, the court typically will quash the indictment. In criminal cases, a motion made by the prosecution to quash an indictment is much more likely to succeed than one made by the defense, whose motion would appear self-serving.

quash annul, invalidate XIV; bring to nought XVII. — OF. quasser (mod. casser break):- L. quassāre shake violently, break to pieces, shatter, freq. of quatere (pp. stem quass-) shake. Senses connected with those of shake and break were current XIV–XVII.