Unoccupies

Part of speech: verb

Definitions

1. To free or make something available by removing occupants or contents
2. To empty a space or area by evicting or displacing individuals or items
3. To render a place vacant by dislodging those who use or inhabit it

Etymology: "Unoccupies" is formed from the verb "unoccupy", which is "un-" plus "occupy". The "un-" prefix here is the reversing kind, as in "undo" or "unlock", so the verb means to stop occupying something, leaving a space or seat empty. "Occupy" itself comes from Latin "occupare", meaning to seize or take hold of, built from "ob-" (toward or against) and "capere" (to take). That sense of seizing still shows in the older meanings of "occupy", such as taking possession of a territory by force, before it came to mean simply residing in a place or filling a seat. Because "unoccupy" simply reverses that sense of filling or possessing, it is a transparent formation rather than a word with its own separate history. Its meaning follows directly from the two parts it is built from.

Synonyms: vacates, abandons, leaves

Antonyms: occupies, inhabits, resides in