Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To cease to occupy (a lodging or place); leave.
  • intransitive verb To cease to hold (a job or position).
  • intransitive verb Law To make void or annul (an erroneous lower court decision).
  • intransitive verb To leave a lodging, place, job, or position.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To make vacant; cause to be empty; quit the occupancy or possession of; leave empty or unoccupied: as, James II. vacated the throne.
  • To annul; make void; make of no authority or validity.
  • To defeat the purpose of; make void of meaning; make useless.
  • To quit; leave.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb To make vacant; to leave empty; to cease from filling or occupying
  • transitive verb To annul; to make void; to deprive of force; to make of no authority or validity
  • transitive verb rare To defeat; to put an end to.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb To move out of a dwelling, either by choice or by eviction.
  • verb To leave an office or position.
  • verb To have a court judgement set aside; to annul.
  • verb To leave an area, usually as a result of orders from public authorities in the event of a riot or natural disaster.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb cancel officially
  • verb leave (a job, post, or position) voluntarily
  • verb leave behind empty; move out of

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin vacāre, vacāt-, to be empty; see euə- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin vacātus, perfect participle of vacō.

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Examples

  • Just a word on why I used the term vacate in my post above concerning the suspension levied against the SSPX in 1974.

    Fellay speaks: The talks begin in the autumn of 2009 2009

  • In 2006, she petitioned the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County to "vacate" her guilty plea and dismiss the two 2000 felony convictions.

    kare11.com - Top Stories News 2010

  • At the dinner, attended by Maroga; Bobby Godsell, then chairman of Eskom; and Eskom's non-executive directors, Daniel Dube and Lars Josefsson; Maroga was told that the Eskom board wanted him to "vacate" his position and that Godsell would remain as chairman.

    IOL: News 2010

  • In cases where an individual has "directly or indirectly" misrepresented their circumstances, the Minister of Public Safety could "vacate" their refugee status and have them removed.

    Thestar.com - Home Page Richard J. Brennan 2010

  • The RIAA, the trade group representing the four largest record labels, informed Thomas-Rasset that it will accept $25,000 -- less than half of the court-reduced award -- if she agrees to ask the judge to "vacate" his decision of last week, which means removing his decision from the record.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • In 2006, she petitioned the Superior Court of Arizona in Maricopa County to "vacate" her guilty plea and dismiss the two 2000 felony convictions.

    kare11.com - Top Stories News 2010

  • The RIAA, the trade group representing the four largest record labels, informed Thomas-Rasset that it will accept $25,000 -- less than half of the court-reduced award -- if she agrees to ask the judge to "vacate" his decision of last week, which means removing his decision from the record.

    Medlogs - Recent stories 2010

  • Moeller said the layoff was jarring -- he and others had to "vacate" the same day.

    unknown title 2009

  • LAKELAND | At the age of 79, Bobby Bowden isn't going to spend much time worrying whether the NCAA makes Florida State "vacate" 14 victories that will take him out of his personal competition with Joe Paterno.

    news | LL | http://www.theledger.com 2009

  • LAKELAND | At the age of 79, Bobby Bowden isn't going to spend much time worrying whether the NCAA makes Florida State "vacate" 14 victories that will take him out of his personal competition with Joe Paterno.

    news | LL | http://www.theledger.com 2009

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