v. Forms: 4 aiorne, 4–6 aiourne, 5–6 ajourn(e, 6 adiorn(e, 6– adjourn. [a. OFr. ajorne-r, ajurne-r, ajourne-r:—late L. adiurnā-re, adjurnā-re, adjornā-re ‘diem dicere alicui,’ Ducange, f. ad to + late L. jurnus, jornus (cf. It. giorno, Pr. jorn, Fr. jour) a day:—cl. L. diurn-us daily, lasting for a day: see JOURNAL. The occasional MFr. ad- for a-, rejected in mod. Fr., has been retained in Eng. since 6.]
† 1. trans. To appoint (one) a day for his appearance; to cite or summon for a particular day; to remand (one) for justice to another day or occasion. Obs.
1330. R. Brunne, Chron., 309. He aiorned þam to relie in þe North at Carlele.
c. 1360. Chaucer, A. B. C., 158. Ladi, vn to þat court þou me aiourne þat cleped is þi bench.
1530. Palsgr., 419/2. I adjourne, I monisshe or warne one to apere afore a judge at a daye certayne: Je semons. I am adjourned by the bysshops offycers.
1600. Holland, Livy, XLII. xxii. 1128. The Pretour … adjourned [jussit] the defendant to make appearance in the court upon the Ides of March.
1660. Howell, To Adjourn, or Cite to Apeer, citare, appellare.
2. To defer or put off (a time, action, or state), prop. to another day; also indefinitely; to postpone, defer, put off.
1430. Lydg., Chron. Troy, V. xxxvi. For they them caste the time not aiourne, For daye and nighte with her they soiourne.
1559. Myrroure for Mag., Suffolk, xxii. 4. Fro place to place to adiourne it divers times.
1589. Warner, Albion’s Eng., VI. xxxi. (1612), 152. My Deitie adiornde therefore, in humaine forme I wowe.
1600. Chapman, Iliad, XVI. 74. No more let them ajourn Our sweet home-turning.
1725. Pope, Odyssey, XII. 33. This day adjourn your cares.
1847. Bushnell, Chr. Nurt., iv. (1861), 102. Every law of physiology must be adjourned.
1861. Emerson, Cond. Life, ii. 50. I adjourn what I have to say on this topic.
3. To adjourn (a meeting): To put off or defer its further proceedings to another day; to discontinue or dissolve it, in order to reconstitute it at another time or place.
1494. Fabyan, an. 1433 (R.). Parlyament … was aiourned onto Seynt Edwardes day.
1613. Shaks., Hen. VIII., II. iv. 232. ’Tis a needfull fitnesse That we adiourne this Court till further day.
1741. Middleton, Cicero (1742), II. vi. 6. The Consul … immediately adjourned the Senate into the Capitol.
1880. W. MacCormac, Antis. Surgery, 71. The meeting … was adjourned for a fortnight.
† 4. refl. (as in 5). Obs.
a. 1626. Bacon, Adv. to Villiers (R.). By him [the king] alone are they prorogued and dissolved; but each house may adjourn itself.
1641. in Rushworth’s Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 496. The Lords and Commons may Adjourn themselves to any place.
1669–70. Marvell, Corr., 134, Wks. 1875, II. 300. The House then adjournd themselves till Thursday.
5. intr. (from refl.) Of persons met for business: To suspend proceedings and disperse for a time agreed upon, or sine die, that is, without specifying any day for reassembling. Also, to separate in order to meet at another place; hence fam. to remove the place of meeting, without the intervention of any time save that occupied by the change of place.
1641. in Rushworth’s Hist. Coll., III. (1692), I. 496. Touching the Houses Adjourning to any other place at their pleasure.
1718. Pope, Iliad, XIX. 289. The speedy council at his word adjourn’d.
1781. Gibbon, Decl. & F., III. xlviii. 25. From the church the people adjourned to the hippodrome.
c. 1815. Miss Austen, Northang. Ab. (1833), I. xv. 94. They thence adjourned to eat ice at a pastry-cook’s.
