ENGLISH
REFERENCE

vacate

v.
B2 Upper Intermediate US //ˈveɪkeɪt// UK //vˈeɪkeɪt// va·cate

v. to leave a place so that it is empty and available for someone else to use. You often hear this when people move out of a house or hotel room.

v. to leave a premises or position, making it empty or available for others. Often used in legal or formal contexts regarding property or official roles.


SIMPLE

Guests must vacate their rooms by noon.

CONTEXTUAL

The court ordered the tenants to vacate the property within thirty days after they failed to pay the rent.

COMPLEX

The outgoing CEO agreed to vacate his office immediately following the board's decision, ensuring a smooth transition for the interim leadership team during the restructuring phase.

Synonyms
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.

Usage

The verb is transitive and requires a direct object, typically a physical space or a formal position.

Pitfall

The family vacated from the house.The family vacated the house.Vacate is a transitive verb; it takes a direct object without the preposition 'from'.

© 2026 English Reference