adjournment
Americannoun
Other Word Forms
- nonadjournment noun
- preadjournment noun
- proadjournment adjective
- readjournment noun
Etymology
Origin of adjournment
1635–45; < Anglo-French adjournement, Middle French. See adjourn, -ment
Explanation
When you end something or postpone it to a later time, that's an adjournment. When an initially friendly meeting becomes an angry shouting match, it might be time for an adjournment. Members at a company board meeting might request an adjournment for lunch, agreeing to reconvene in an hour. Court cases take similar adjournments, pausing for the weekend or holidays. The Supreme Court's regular schedule includes a summer-long adjournment that doesn't end until the first Monday in October, when a new session begins. The Old French source, ajornement, meant both "daybreak" and "summons to appear in court." Adjourn was initially used to mean "set a date to reconvene."
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The most recent request for an adjournment of a scheduled status conference came in September.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 27, 2026
Boasberg adjourned the hearing so Ensign could gather more information—and the government evidently exploited this adjournment to dispatch the two planes.
From Slate • Apr. 16, 2025
However, the musician's lawyers suggested they might request a two-week adjournment, saying that prosecutors had yet to hand over some 200,000 emails relating to one of Combs' alleged victims.
From BBC • Apr. 15, 2025
His request for adjournment was denied and instead the report was set aside.
From BBC • Feb. 19, 2025
He then showed the Russian all of the variations he’d worked out during the adjournment.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
