adjourn Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb close at the end of a session
    recess; break up.
    • The court adjourned
  2. verb break from a meeting or gathering
    retire; withdraw.
    • We adjourned for lunch
    • The men retired to the library

WordNet

Ad*journ transitive verb
Etymology
OE. ajornen, OF. ajoiner, ajurner, F. ajourner; OF. a (L. ad) + jor, jur, jorn, F. jour, day, fr. L. diurnus belonging to the day, fr. dies day. Cf. Journal, Journey.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Adjourned present participle & verbal noun Adjourning
Definitions
  1. To put off or defer to another day, or indefinitely; to postpone; to close or suspend for the day; -- commonly said of the meeting, or the action, of convened body; as, to adjourn the meeting; to adjourn a debate.
    It is a common practice to adjourn the reformation of their lives to a further time. Barrow.
    'Tis a needful fitness That we adjourn this court till further day. Shak.
    Syn. -- To delay; defer; postpone; put off; suspend. -- To Adjourn, Prorogue, Dissolve. These words are used in respect to public bodies when they lay aside business and separate. Adjourn, both in Great Britain and this country, is applied to all cases in which such bodies separate for a brief period, with a view to meet again. Prorogue is applied in Great Britain to that act of the executive government, as the sovereign, which brings a session of Parliament to a close. The word is not used in this country, but a legislative body is said, in such a case, to adjourn sine die. To dissolve is to annul the corporate existence of a body. In order to exist again the body must be reconstituted.
Ad*journ" intransitive verb
Definitions
  1. To suspend business for a time, as from one day to another, or for a longer period, or indefinitely; usually, to suspend public business, as of legislatures and courts, or other convened bodies; as, congress adjourned at four o'clock; the court adjourned without day.

Webster 1913