vacation

(vā-kā'shən, və-)
n.

1. A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation, especially one with pay granted to an employee.
2. 1. A holiday.
   2. A fixed period of holidays, especially one during which a school, court, or business suspends activities.
3. Archaic. The act or an instance of vacating.

intr.v., -tioned, -tion·ing, -tions.
To take or spend a vacation.

[Middle English vacacioun, from Old French vacation, from Latin vacātiō, vacātiōn-, freedom from occupation, from vacātus, past participle of vacāre, to be empty, at leisure.]

vacationer va·ca'tion·er or va·ca'tion·eer' (-shə-nîr') n.

View more Literature & Language videos

is in North America the ordinary word for British English holiday. In Britain it is only used in the context of universities and the law courts. The corresponding word for Parliament is recess.

Previous:	Virgil, -ves, 've
Next:	vacuum, vade-mecum, vagary

noun

A regularly scheduled period spent away from work or duty, often in recreation: furlough, leave². Chiefly British holiday. See work/play.

n

Definition: planned time spent not working
Antonyms: work

n. a prison sentence. (Underworld.)  It was a three-year vacation, with time off for good behavior.

---

IN BRIEF: A period of time devoted to pleasure, rest, or relaxation, especially one with pay granted to an employee.

Kids love summer vacation.

LearnThatWord.com is a free vocabulary and spelling program where you only pay for results!

sign description: Both thumbs of the open 5-hands come up and rest on the shoulders.

---

Quotes:

"Holidays are in no sense an alternative to the congestion and bustle of cities and work. Quite the contrary. People look to escape into an intensification of the conditions of ordinary life, into a deliberate aggravation of those conditions: further from nature, nearer to artifice, to abstraction, to total pollution, to well above average levels of stress, pressure, concentration and monotony -- this is the ideal of popular entertainment. No one is interested in overcoming alienation; the point is to plunge into it to the point of ecstasy. That is what holidays are for." - Jean Baudrillard

"To get away from one's working environment is, in a sense, to get away from one's self; and this is often the chief advantage of travel and change." - Charles Horton Cooley

"A vacation is over when you begin to yearn for your work." - Morris Fishbein

"Total physical and mental inertia are highly agreeable, much more so than we allow ourselves to imagine. A beach not only permits such inertia but enforces it, thus neatly eliminating all problems of guilt. It is now the only place in our overly active world that does." - John Kenneth Galbraith

"No vacation goes unpunished." - Karl A. Hakkarainen

"No man needs a vacation so much as the man who has just had one." - Elbert Hubbard

See more famous quotes about Vacation

See Holiday.

---

For a list of words related to vacation, see:

• Celebrations, Observances, Rites, and Gatherings - vacation: period of rest from normal activities, often spent away from home
• Vacations and Interludes - vacation: period of rest from normal activities, often spent traveling away from home

---

See words rhyming with "vacationer."

  See crossword solutions for the clue Vacation.

Dansk (Danish)
n. - ferie, fratrædelse
v. intr. - feriere, holde ferie

Nederlands (Dutch)
vakantie, ontruiming, vakantie houden

Français (French)
n. - (gén, Univ) vacances, (Jur) vacations, (Jur) vacances judiciaires
v. intr. - (US) passer des vacances

Deutsch (German)
n. - Ferien, Urlaub, Räumung, Aufgabe
v. - Urlaub machen

Ελληνική (Greek)
n. - διακοπή, αργία, διακοπές, κανονική άδεια (μισθωτού)

Italiano (Italian)
vacanza, vacanze, sgombero, evacuazione

Português (Portuguese)
n. - férias (f pl), feriado (m), recesso (m)

Русский (Russian)
отпуск, каникулы, оставление чего-либо

Español (Spanish)
n. - vacaciones, licencia, suspensión, receso
v. intr. - ir de vacaciones, vacacionar

Svenska (Swedish)
n. - semester, lämnande, frånträdande, avgång, upphävande

中文（简体）(Chinese (Simplified))
假期, 休假, 度假

中文（繁體）(Chinese (Traditional))
n. - 假期, 休假
v. intr. - 度假

한국어 (Korean)
n. - 정기 휴가, 사직 , 궐위 기간
v. intr. - 휴가를 보내다, 휴가를 얻다

日本語 (Japanese)
n. - 定期休暇, 休暇, 明け渡し, 空位期間
v. - 休暇をとる, 休暇を取る

العربيه (Arabic)
‏(الاسم) عطله, اخلاء, اجازة‏

עברית (Hebrew)
n. - ‮חופשה, פגרה, פינוי‬
v. intr. - ‮יצא לחופשה, בילה ב-‬

If you are unable to view some languages clearly, click here.

To select your translation preferences click here.