Meanings
present singular third person vacates · participle present vacating · participle past vacated · past vacated
- To move out of a dwelling or other property, either by choice or by eviction.
You are hereby ordered to vacate the premises within 14 days.
2 more examples
I have to vacate my house by midday, as the new owner is moving in.
The dynamic tests at Wildenrath use continuous test tracks built on the site of a former Royal Air Force station that was vacated after the end of the Cold War.
2023 November 29, Philip Haigh, “New Piccadilly Line trains put to the test”, in RAIL, number 997, page 26 - transitivelawTo have a court judgement set aside; to annul.
The judge vacated the earlier decision when new evidence was presented.
1 more example
On Thursday, the New York court of appeals vacated his conviction after concluding that a trial judge permitted jurors to see and hear too much evidence not directly related to the charges he faced. It also erased his 23-year prison sentence and ordered a retrial.
2024 April 27, Maya Yang, “Disgraced former Hollywood producer Harvey Weinstein hospitalized”, in The Observer, →ISSN - To leave an area, usually as a result of orders from public authorities in the event of a riot or natural disaster.
If you do not immediately vacate the area, we will make you leave with tear gas!
Synonyms & antonyms
verbleave (a job, post, or position) voluntarily
verbcancel officially
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
- Latinvacat
- Middle Englishvacat“absence or cancellation noted in a register”
- Englishvacate
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.
More words from Middle English, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Translations
Arabic أخْلَا, تَرَكَ
- أخْلَاto move out
- تَرَكَ (taraka)to leave an office
- أبْطَلَto have court judgement set aside
- نَحّىto have court judgement set aside
Bulgarian освобожда́вам, опразвам
- освобожда́вам (osvoboždávam)to move out
- опразвам (oprazvam)to move out
- напускам (napuskam)to leave an office
- опразвам (oprazvam)to leave an area
- евакуирам се (evakuiram se)to leave an area
Catalan desllogar
- desllogarto move out
Finnish muuttaa pois, erota
- muuttaa poisto move out
- erotato leave an office
- jättää virkato leave an office
- mitätöidäto have court judgement set aside
- lähteä evakkoonto leave an area
Hindi ख़ाली करना
- ख़ाली करना (xālī karnā)to move out
Māori whakatahi, whakatahi
- whakatahito move out
- whakatahito leave an area
Portuguese vacar, vagar
- vacarto move out
- vagarto move out
Russian освобожда́ть, освободи́ть
- освобожда́ть (osvoboždátʹ)to move out
- освободи́ть (osvobodítʹ)to move out
Spanish desalojar, dejar vacante
- desalojarto move out
- dejar vacanteto leave an office
- hacer vacarto leave an office
- desalojarto leave an area
Rhymes & wordplay
Rhymes with vacate
Anagrams
Cite this entry
vacate. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vacate
“vacate.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vacate. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vacate,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vacate.
Source: vacate on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.