VACATION

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does vacation mean? 

• VACATION (noun)
  The noun VACATION has 2 senses:

1. leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure

2. the act of making something legally void

  Familiarity information: VACATION used as a noun is rare.

• VACATION (verb)
  The verb VACATION has 1 sense:

1. spend or take a vacation

  Familiarity information: VACATION used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VACATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure

Classified under:

Nouns denoting time and temporal relations

Synonyms:

holiday; vacation

Context example:

we took a short holiday in Puerto Rico

Hypernyms ("vacation" is a kind of...):

leisure; leisure time (time available for ease and relaxation)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "vacation"):

half-term (a short vacation about halfway through a school term)

vac; vacay (informal term for vacation)

field day; outing; picnic (a day devoted to an outdoor social gathering)

honeymoon (a holiday taken by a newly married couple)

paid vacation (a vacation from work by an employee with pay granted)

Derivation:

vacation (spend or take a vacation)

vacationist (someone on vacation; someone who is devoting time to pleasure or relaxation rather than to work)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The act of making something legally void

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("vacation" is a kind of...):

abrogation; annulment; repeal (the act of abrogating; an official or legal cancellation)

Derivation:

vacate (cancel officially)

• VACATION (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they vacation    ... he / she / it vacations   
Past simple: vacationed   
Past participle: vacationed   
-ing form: vacationing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Spend or take a vacation

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Synonyms:

holiday; vacation

Hypernyms (to "vacation" is one way to...):

pass; spend (use up a period of time in a specific way)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "vacation"):

honeymoon (spend a holiday after one's marriage)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

vacation (leisure time away from work devoted to rest or pleasure)

vacationer (someone on vacation; someone who is devoting time to pleasure or relaxation rather than to work)

vacationing (the act of taking a vacation)

vacationist (someone on vacation; someone who is devoting time to pleasure or relaxation rather than to work)

 Context examples 

All this occurred during the first month of the long vacation.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“When you came away from home at the end of the vacation,” said Mrs. Creakle, after a pause, “were they all well?” After another pause, “Was your mama well?”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Do not be away on vacation at that time.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

"Do you study in vacation time?" asked Jo.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I did them in the last two vacations I spent at Lowood, when I had no other occupation.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

You see, this vacation I have taken has given me perspective.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Travelling can be stressful experience—whether it be to a vacation spot or business destination.

(Antibiotic Alternative Scores Well in Second Round of Swine Trials, U.S. Department of Agriculture)

For a moment Catherine was surprised; but Mrs. Thorpe and her daughters had scarcely begun the history of their acquaintance with Mr. James Morland, before she remembered that her eldest brother had lately formed an intimacy with a young man of his own college, of the name of Thorpe; and that he had spent the last week of the Christmas vacation with his family, near London.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Till this year, every long vacation since their marriage had been divided between Hartfield and Donwell Abbey; but all the holidays of this autumn had been given to sea-bathing for the children, and it was therefore many months since they had been seen in a regular way by their Surry connexions, or seen at all by Mr. Woodhouse, who could not be induced to get so far as London, even for poor Isabella's sake; and who consequently was now most nervously and apprehensively happy in forestalling this too short visit.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Use part of the time Mercury is retrograde to take a much-needed vacation in the days that follow that favorable new moon of February 23.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)