Definition
To postpone, suspend, or close a session of a court, legislature, or other convened body, either to a specified future time or indefinitely. The term carries two related but distinct meanings in legal usage:
1. ADJOURN TO A DAY CERTAIN: To suspend proceedings with a specified date and, where applicable, place fixed for resumption. This is the primary and historically older sense — to "give a day" (ad diem dicere) to the body or the parties.
2. ADJOURN SINE DIE: To suspend proceedings without setting a future date, effectively dissolving the session entirely. A legislature that adjourns sine die closes its term; a court that adjourns sine die signals that no further proceedings are contemplated in that sitting.
Both forms are procedurally significant: the manner of adjournment can determine whether a session, term, or proceeding has legally concluded or merely paused.
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Common Language
Modern common usage (Wiktionary): To postpone, defer, or end an event; also used colloquially to mean moving as a group from one place to another ("let's adjourn to the dining room").
Historical common usage (Webster's 1913): To put off or defer to another day, or indefinitely; to close or suspend for the day — specifically as applied to the action of a convened body.
The common and legal meanings are largely continuous, but the legal context adds procedural weight that ordinary usage lacks. In law, adjourning to a specified time creates obligations and preserves rights; adjourning sine die may terminate those rights. The casual use ("adjourn to the next room") carries none of this consequence and should not be imported into legal analysis.
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Recognized Forms
/SUBTYPES
ADJOURN TO A DAY CERTAIN: Suspension with a fixed resumption date. Proceedings remain pending; the session or term continues.
ADJOURN SINE DIE: Indefinite suspension without a fixed return date. Typically marks the end of a legislative session or the formal close of a court term. Distinguished from a recess, which implies a shorter interruption within an ongoing session.
ADJOURNED SESSION / ADJOURNED TERM: A continuation of an original session or term held on a later date. Historically treated in case law as a continuation of the same term rather than a new one — a distinction with consequences for filing deadlines, jury service, and the validity of judicial acts.
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Why It Matters in Research
The critical research trap with adjourn is the sine die / adjournment to a day certain distinction. Many historical cases — particularly those involving legislative acts, court terms, and filing deadlines — turn on which type of adjournment occurred. An "adjourned term" in older case law is not a new term; it is a continuation of the original. Researchers working with 19th-century court records or legislative journals must read the specific language of adjournment resolutions carefully, as courts frequently relied on that language to determine jurisdiction and timeliness.
For legislative research, the moment of sine die adjournment is constitutionally significant in many jurisdictions: bills not signed before sine die may be pocket-vetoed, legislative authority under emergency sessions may lapse, and the ability to reconvene depends entirely on whether the adjournment was sine die or to a day certain.
In the Law Mind corpus, adjourn intersects heavily with entries on court terms, continuances, recesses, and legislative sessions. Search for related terms (below) when researching procedural gaps, lapsed jurisdiction, or the validity of acts taken after adjournment.
Historical sources in the corpus use "adjourn" and "continuance" in ways that can appear interchangeable but are not. An adjournment operates on the body or session as a whole; a continuance operates on a specific matter or case within a session. Conflating these in historical sources leads to errors about whether a court retained jurisdiction.
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Historical Dictionary Support
The historical dictionaries are in strong agreement on the core definition. Black's (both editions), Burrill, Anderson, and Rapalje & Lawrence all define adjourn as "to put off or defer to another day, or indefinitely." The Latin and French etymology surfaces across sources — Burrill traces the chain from French adjourner through Latin adjornare to jour (day), connecting the legal act of adjourning to the older practice of "giving a day" to parties or bodies (adjournamentum est ad diem dicere, seu diem dare, as quoted in Rapalje & Lawrence).
Black's adds the useful observation that while the primary meaning is deferral to a specified day, the term has acquired the secondary sense of simple suspension — deferring without necessarily fixing a return date. This expansion in meaning is practically important: older English and American sources may use "adjourn" strictly in the day-certain sense, while later usage accommodates the indefinite suspension.
Anderson's entry links adjournment to the concepts of vacation and continuation of court terms — pointing researchers toward the procedural consequences that historical dictionaries otherwise leave implicit. Burrill notes the term applies equally to courts and legislative bodies, a dual application that all sources confirm.
What the historical dictionaries do not address: the constitutional dimensions of adjournment in legislative contexts (particularly the Adjournments Clause issues in federal practice), and the interaction between adjournment and executive pocket-veto authority. Researchers should not rely on these dictionary sources alone for constitutional adjournment questions.
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Jurisdictional Note
State legislatures and courts vary in how adjournment rules interact with the governor's veto period, bill-signing deadlines, and the authority to reconvene. Federal constitutional practice (Art. I, § 5 and the Recess Appointments Clause) treats adjournment with specific technical meaning that differs from the general common-law definition. Researchers working across jurisdictions should verify the local rule before assuming a uniform meaning.
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Encyclopedia Cross-Reference
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Legislative Procedure (adjournment of legislative sessions, sine die, recess distinguished)
See Law Mind Encyclopedia — Court Sessions and Terms (adjourned terms, continuation of jurisdiction, filing deadlines)
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