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
Shortly after October's court adjournment, the club's ownership claimed they had secured funding which would arrive "within 12 days" but ultimately that failed to materialise.
From BBC • Dec. 3, 2025
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
He told a Commons adjournment debate: "There was no hard evidence against Letby, nobody saw her do anything untoward."
From BBC • Jan. 8, 2025
It was a nine-and-a-half-hour marathon in which Fischer, even though a pawn ahead, had a difficult position right up to 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.
