Cite as: 529 U. S. 694 (2000)
Scalia, J., dissenting
gress, by the phrase "revoke a term of supervised release," meant "recall but not cancel a term of supervised release" is both linguistically and conceptually absurd.
The dictionary support that the Court seeks to enlist for its definition is fictitious. It is indeed the case that both the Oxford English Dictionary and Webster's Third New International Dictionary give as a meaning of "revoke" "to call or summon back"; but neither of them adds the fillip that is essential to the Court's point—that the thing called back "retain vitality." Ante, at 707. They say nothing at all about the implication of calling or summoning back—which, in the case of calling or summoning back an order or decree, is necessarily annulment.3 Further, while the dictionaries the Court mentions do not give its chosen meaning "antiquarian reproach," ante, at 706, n. 9, many dictionaries do. The New Shorter Oxford shows this usage as obsolete, see New Shorter Oxford English Dictionary 2583 (1993), and the previous edition of Webster's New International shows it as rare, see Webster's New International Dictionary 2134 (2d ed. 1942). Other dictionaries also show the Court's chosen meaning as rare, e. g., Chambers English Dictionary 1257 (1988), as obsolete or archaic, e. g., Cassell Concise English Dictionary 1149 (1992); Funk and Wagnalls New Standard Dictionary 2104 (1957), or do not give it as a meaning at all, e. g., American Heritage Dictionary 1545 (3d ed. 1992).4
3 As the Court suggests in its quotation of Webster's Third's definition of "RECALL," see ante, at 706, the annulment may be only temporary (a "suspension"); but that is so only if there is some authority for repromulgation after the revocation—which leaves the Court no further along than it was before it dipped into the more obscure meanings of "revoke": it must identify some authority to reimpose supervised release. This blends into the next point made in text.
4 Whether one attributes any currency to "revoke" in the sense of "call back" depends, I think, on whether one counts as current usage figurative usage. The OED, while not showing the meaning "to call back" as obsolete, does indicate that its current usage is "chiefly fig[urative]." 13 Ox-
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