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Added 9 October 2026

vacate

/veɪˈkeɪt/ verb

Latin root: vacat Wiktionary

verb Definition from WordNet 3.1, Princeton University. Pronunciation from Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org. More about vacate at Wordnik → Where our words come from →

Leave (a job, post, or position) voluntarily.
She vacated the position when she got pregnant
Leave behind empty; move out of.
You must vacate your office by tonight
Cancel officially.
He revoked the ban on smoking

Origin

Originally used in the legal sense "to annul", a denominal from Early Modern English vacat (“legal annulment”), a development from Middle English vacat (“absence or cancellation noted in a register”), from Latin vacat, third-person singular present active indicative of vacō (“to be idle; to be unoccupied”, literally “to be empty”). The primary modern sense "to move out" likely developed under the influence of older borrowing vacant (“unoccupied”), in combination with the Early Modern use of vacate to refer to the termination of official appointments to office, which would leave those position vacant.

From Wiktionary, via Kaikki.org (CC BY-SA)

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