ADJOURN

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does adjourn mean? 

• ADJOURN (verb)
  The verb ADJOURN has 2 senses:

1. close at the end of a session

2. break from a meeting or gathering

  Familiarity information: ADJOURN used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ADJOURN (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they adjourn    ... he / she / it adjourns   
Past simple: adjourned   
Past participle: adjourned   
-ing form: adjourning   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Close at the end of a session

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

adjourn; break up; recess

Context example:

The court adjourned

Hypernyms (to "adjourn" is one way to...):

cease; end; finish; stop; terminate (have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

adjournment (the termination of a meeting)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Break from a meeting or gathering

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

adjourn; retire; withdraw

Context example:

The men retired to the library

Hypernyms (to "adjourn" is one way to...):

close; close down; close up; fold; shut down (cease to operate or cause to cease operating)

"Adjourn" entails doing...:

assemble; foregather; forgather; gather; meet (collect in one place)

Verb group:

seclude; sequester; sequestrate; withdraw (keep away from others)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "adjourn"):

prorogue (adjourn by royal prerogative; without dissolving the legislative body)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

adjournment (the act of postponing to another time or place)

 Context examples 

You don't look festive, ma'am, what's the matter? asked Laurie, following her into a corner of the parlor, whither all had adjourned to greet Mr. Laurence.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

After dinner, we immediately adjourned to the schoolroom: lessons recommenced, and were continued till five o'clock.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

For instance, in the case already mentioned; they never desire to know what claim or title my adversary has to my cow; but whether the said cow were red or black; her horns long or short; whether the field I graze her in be round or square; whether she was milked at home or abroad; what diseases she is subject to, and the like; after which they consult precedents, adjourn the cause from time to time, and in ten, twenty, or thirty years, come to an issue.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

We had an adjourned cause in the Consistory that day—about excommunicating a baker who had been objecting in a vestry to a paving-rate—and as the evidence was just twice the length of Robinson Crusoe, according to a calculation I made, it was rather late in the day before we finished.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Such was the information of the first five minutes; the second unfolded thus much in detail—that they had driven directly to the York Hotel, ate some soup, and bespoke an early dinner, walked down to the pump-room, tasted the water, and laid out some shillings in purses and spars; thence adjourned to eat ice at a pastry-cook's, and hurrying back to the hotel, swallowed their dinner in haste, to prevent being in the dark; and then had a delightful drive back, only the moon was not up, and it rained a little, and Mr. Morland's horse was so tired he could hardly get it along.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

They could not but hold her cheap on finding that she had but two sashes, and had never learned French; and when they perceived her to be little struck with the duet they were so good as to play, they could do no more than make her a generous present of some of their least valued toys, and leave her to herself, while they adjourned to whatever might be the favourite holiday sport of the moment, making artificial flowers or wasting gold paper.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Miss Kate did know several new games, and as the girls would not, and the boys could not, eat any more, they all adjourned to the drawing room to play Rig-marole.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

So it was an unusually lively meeting, and did not adjourn till a late hour, when it broke up with three shrill cheers for the new member.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)