adjournment

[Fr. ajournement: à = to, and jour = day; suffix -ment (q. v.).] A. Ordinary Language: I. The putting of anything off till next day, or, more loosely, till a future period. *1. ( Spec .): The putting off duty which should be done to-day till to-morrow, and when that arrives then again till to-morrow; procrastination. "We will, and we will not; and then we will not again, and we will. At this rate we run our lives out in adjournments it as tical levity that holds us off and on, betwixt hawk and buzzard."-L'Estrange. 2. Properly the putting off the remainder of a meeting of Parliament, or any other body, for one day; but it may be used in a wider signification for postponement till a specified day. When no day is indicated, then, if the word adjournment is used at all, it is said to be sine die-i.e., without a day. The adjournment of Parliament is not the same as either its prorogation [PROROGATION] or its di olution [DISSOLUTION]. "Common decency required at least an adjournment."-Macaulay: Hist . Eng . , ch. xv. II. The time during which or to which busine or a meeting is postponed. Used, for example, of the time during which the Parliament or any other public body which has been adjourned remains without re-a embling; as "the hon, member saw his friend for a few hours during the adjournment." B. Technically : Law : (a) A further day appointed by the judges at the Nisi Prius sittings for the trial of i ues in fact, which were not before ready for disposal. (b) Adjournment in eyre: An appointment of a day when the justices in eyre mean to sit again. (Cowell.) [EYRE.] ad-joyn-ate, pa. par. [ADJOIN.] "Two seinely princes, together adjoynate ."-Hardyng: Chronicle, p. 154.