: a temporary stay
a sojourn in the country
sojourned; sojourning; sojourns
: to stay as a temporary resident : stop
sojourned for a month at a resort
sojourner
noun
Synonyms
Examples of sojourn in a Sentence
Noun
The visit with my father was preceded by a sojourn with my sister, Joy—an artistic type and sometime vegan who plays the part of patient vegetarian whenever her unrepentantly carnivorous brother drops in—and her husband, who were kind enough to pick me up at Heathrow.
—
John Haney, Gourmet, January 2003
On a recent sojourn in Sicily, I frequently found myself remembering that page in the children's encyclopedia, because it seemed to me that what I was seeing was as close as I will ever come to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
—Francine Prose, Atlantic, December 2002
My mother is Venezuelan, and every year during my childhood we spent a two-month sojourn with her family there.
—Alexandra Starr, New Republic, 20 May 2002
Our family enjoyed a two-week sojourn in the mountains.
spent a relaxing sojourn in her friend's summer home
Verb
'Am I hideous, Jane?' 'Very, sir: you always were, you know.' 'Humph! The wickedness has not been taken out of you, wherever you have sojourned.'
—Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847
… there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity.
—Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleep Hollow, 1820
began their retirement by leisurely sojourning with friends and relatives scattered across the country
John Haney, Gourmet, January 2003
On a recent sojourn in Sicily, I frequently found myself remembering that page in the children's encyclopedia, because it seemed to me that what I was seeing was as close as I will ever come to the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World.
—Francine Prose, Atlantic, December 2002
My mother is Venezuelan, and every year during my childhood we spent a two-month sojourn with her family there.
—Alexandra Starr, New Republic, 20 May 2002
Our family enjoyed a two-week sojourn in the mountains.
spent a relaxing sojourn in her friend's summer home
Verb
'Am I hideous, Jane?' 'Very, sir: you always were, you know.' 'Humph! The wickedness has not been taken out of you, wherever you have sojourned.'
—Charlotte Brontë, Jane Eyre, 1847
… there abode, in a remote period of American history, that is to say, some thirty years since, a worthy wight of the name of Ichabod Crane, who sojourned, or, as he expressed it, "tarried," in Sleepy Hollow, for the purpose of instructing the children of the vicinity.
—Washington Irving, The Legend of Sleep Hollow, 1820
began their retirement by leisurely sojourning with friends and relatives scattered across the country
Recent Examples on the WebHazlitt, 3 Apr. 2024
The triumphs the characters are able to enjoy by the end of their sojourn feel more than earned, even as the series brushes up against the guilt that accompanies their relative good fortune.
—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Mar. 2024
Yet camp life was by no means a stress-free sojourn from the front line.
—Jack Bantock, CNN, 9 Mar. 2024
However, beyond certain pre-acclimatization strategies, such as brief sojourns to high altitude, physical fitness and training is of little benefit.
—Brian Strickland, Discover Magazine, 9 Mar. 2024
Yukio Yamai started the company as a mountain climbing brand, before his son Tohru took over in 1980 and refocused it on car camping gear, specifically catering to people like himself who had busy lives in Tokyo and yearned for quiet sojourns in nature.
—Megan Spurrell, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Feb. 2024
In the early days of our relationship, my now husband and I gave up our jobs, packed our harem pants into oversized backpacks, and set off on a six-month sojourn around Southeast Asia.
—Emma Pearson, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Feb. 2024
About 15,000 gray whales idle past Southern California on their annual sojourn, according to Viezbicke.
—Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2024
Last year, ProPublica reported that for decades Thomas has taken undisclosed luxury vacations, paid for by the Republican donor Harlan Crow, including tropical sojourns on Crow’s superyacht and visits to the secretive California retreat Bohemian Grove, where Thomas befriended the Koch brothers.
—Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
Dhruv Mehrotra, WIRED, 28 Mar. 2024
The group had sojourned to Badwater Basin, the park’s lowest point and the lowest point in North America, which sits 282 feet below sea level.
—Hayley Smith, Los Angeles Times, 17 July 2023
The new study, published this week in Nature Communications, bolsters evidence that modern humans sojourned out of Africa more than once and traveled vast distances—although these precocious migrants likely didn’t contribute many, if any, genes to modern populations.
—Byscience News Staff, science.org, 15 June 2023
Regardless, Bolsonaro—who has still refused to concede the election—now may be skipping his successor’s inauguration and ditching his wife to sojourn in Florida for up to two months.
—Prem Thakker, The New Republic, 28 Dec. 2022
The Red Wings sojourn through the Great White North, this time facing the Oilers.
—Andrew Hammond, Detroit Free Press, 16 Mar. 2022
Organizer Bob Hannaford said the swingers sojourn in New Orleans was initially scheduled for the summer but was postponed because of the pandemic.
—Matt Sledge, NOLA.com, 13 Nov. 2020
The safest way to sojourn into the haunted, creepy and macabre, especially during a pandemic, is never to leave home.
—Kirby Adams, The Courier-Journal, 27 Oct. 2020
For two weeks in August each year, the family would sojourn to the Atlantic Coast for a vacation, first at Ocean City and later at Bethany Beach and elsewhere.
—Jacob Wallace, Washington Post, 22 May 2020
Noun
For a sojourn that seems at first glance to have little to do with Libya or Matar’s search for his father, the past is never far behind.
—Hazlitt, 3 Apr. 2024
The triumphs the characters are able to enjoy by the end of their sojourn feel more than earned, even as the series brushes up against the guilt that accompanies their relative good fortune.
—Angie Han, The Hollywood Reporter, 25 Mar. 2024
Yet camp life was by no means a stress-free sojourn from the front line.
—Jack Bantock, CNN, 9 Mar. 2024
However, beyond certain pre-acclimatization strategies, such as brief sojourns to high altitude, physical fitness and training is of little benefit.
—Brian Strickland, Discover Magazine, 9 Mar. 2024
Yukio Yamai started the company as a mountain climbing brand, before his son Tohru took over in 1980 and refocused it on car camping gear, specifically catering to people like himself who had busy lives in Tokyo and yearned for quiet sojourns in nature.
—Megan Spurrell, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Feb. 2024
In the early days of our relationship, my now husband and I gave up our jobs, packed our harem pants into oversized backpacks, and set off on a six-month sojourn around Southeast Asia.
—Emma Pearson, Condé Nast Traveler, 23 Feb. 2024
About 15,000 gray whales idle past Southern California on their annual sojourn, according to Viezbicke.
—Noah Goldberg, Los Angeles Times, 9 Feb. 2024
Last year, ProPublica reported that for decades Thomas has taken undisclosed luxury vacations, paid for by the Republican donor Harlan Crow, including tropical sojourns on Crow’s superyacht and visits to the secretive California retreat Bohemian Grove, where Thomas befriended the Koch brothers.
—Evan Osnos, The New Yorker, 22 Jan. 2024
Verb
From inside Epstein's enigmatic waterfront temple to the pristine beaches, pools, and cabanas scattered across his 71-acres of prime archipelagic real estate, the data compiled by Near captures the movements of scores of people who sojourned at Little St. James as early as July 2016.
—Dhruv Mehrotra, WIRED, 28 Mar. 2024
The group had sojourned to Badwater Basin, the park’s lowest point and the lowest point in North America, which sits 282 feet below sea level.
—Hayley Smith, Los Angeles Times, 17 July 2023
The new study, published this week in Nature Communications, bolsters evidence that modern humans sojourned out of Africa more than once and traveled vast distances—although these precocious migrants likely didn’t contribute many, if any, genes to modern populations.
—Byscience News Staff, science.org, 15 June 2023
Regardless, Bolsonaro—who has still refused to concede the election—now may be skipping his successor’s inauguration and ditching his wife to sojourn in Florida for up to two months.
—Prem Thakker, The New Republic, 28 Dec. 2022
The Red Wings sojourn through the Great White North, this time facing the Oilers.
—Andrew Hammond, Detroit Free Press, 16 Mar. 2022
Organizer Bob Hannaford said the swingers sojourn in New Orleans was initially scheduled for the summer but was postponed because of the pandemic.
—Matt Sledge, NOLA.com, 13 Nov. 2020
The safest way to sojourn into the haunted, creepy and macabre, especially during a pandemic, is never to leave home.
—Kirby Adams, The Courier-Journal, 27 Oct. 2020
For two weeks in August each year, the family would sojourn to the Atlantic Coast for a vacation, first at Ocean City and later at Bethany Beach and elsewhere.
—Jacob Wallace, Washington Post, 22 May 2020
These examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'sojourn.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.
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Cite this Entry
“Sojourn.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sojourn. Accessed 19 Apr. 2024.
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