1 (exclude) [+action, possibility] descartar; excluir; [+candidate] excluir military intervention has not been ruled out no se ha descartado una intervención militar; a back injury has ruled him out of the match una lesión en la espalda lo ha excluido del partido; the age limit rules him out el límite de edad lo excluye; queda excluido por el límite de edad
he refused to rule out tax increases murder can't be ruled out the Prime Minister is believed to have ruled out cuts in child benefit or pensions local detectives have ruled out foul play you are not ruled out because of that I think we should rule her out as a possible candidate it was felt that the lad's inexperience ruled him out his age might count against him - the same factor might rule out Lord Healey too to rule out [doing] sth the United States has ruled out sending ground forces to Bosnia the government has already ruled out raising the price of staple food or increasing taxes to rule [o.s.] out (of sth) /he has ruled himself out of the world championships/ next year in Stuttgart a damaged hamstring has ruled him out of contention for Wednesday's international against Spain we can't rule out the [possibility] of/that ... they have not ruled out the possibility of holding a referendum the government has not ruled out the possibility that some people may have died in the violence yesterday
2 (make impossible) hacer imposible; imposibilitar the TV was on, effectively ruling out conversation la televisión estaba puesta, lo que de hecho hacía imposible imposibilitaba toda conversación;or
the economic climate would appear to rule out overall profit growth in the current year a serious car accident in 1986 ruled out a permanent future for him in farming
