Words / B / Law

blue-pencil

verb/ˌbluːˈpɛnsl/

C2CEFR level
90/100Rarity: very rare
TechnicalRegister

To strike out an unenforceable part of a restrictive covenant while leaving the rest intact.

The court could blue-pencil the excessive geographic limit but not rewrite the clause.

Similar: sever, excise

Topic: Employment law in Legal English

Rarity runs from 0 (a word everyone knows) to 100 (almost never seen outside specialist or literary writing). Level is the word's real difficulty on the CEFR scale, from A1 to C2.

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More law words: Employment law