Sekirov Dictionary

recess

UK /ɹɪˈsɛs/US /ˈɹiˌsɛs/

noun 18
verb 8
adjective 1
forms 5

noun18

•
A temporary stoppage of an activity; a break, a pause.
- Spring recess offers a good chance to travel.
•
A period of time when the proceedings of a committee, court of law, parliament, or other official body are temporarily suspended.
- After the Easter recess, Sir George Lynn, who was lately elected member for Millcote, will have to go up to town and take his seat; […] — 1847
•
(US, UK) A time away from studying during the school day for a meal or recreation.
- Students who do not listen in class will not play outside during recess.
•
A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.
- Put a generous recess behind the handle for finger space.
•
A small space created by building part of a wall further back from the rest; a niche.
- My uncle now clambered on top of the half score of mattresses which form a French bed, and which stood in a deep recess; […] — 1824
An extension or outpouching of a cavity (e.g. articular recess, peritoneal recess,...)
•
A hidden, innermost, or inaccessible place or part of a place.
- The recesses of the forest answered well the purposes of concealment, and Lucy was useful both as an unsuspected messenger, and also for the intelligence she was able to obtain. — 1834
•
[usually plural] (figurative) An obscure, remote, or secret situation.
- the difficulties and recesses of science
[usually plural] (slang) The place in a prison where the communal lavatories are located.
An overall-concave, reentrant section of a sinuous fold and thrust belt, thrust sheet, or a single thrust fault, caused by one or more of: deformation (folding and faulting) of strata and geologic structures during orogenesis, differences in the angle of critical taper during orogenesis, or differing erosional level of the present geomorphological surface.
(historical) A decree or resolution of the diet of the Holy Roman Empire or the Hanseatic League.
•
(figurative, no longer used) A time interval during which something ceases; an interruption, a respite.
- But in the end (as Persons capable of reason) on both sides they made rather a kind of Recesse, then a Breach of Treaty, and concluded vpon a Truce for some moneths follovving. — 1622
•
(no longer used) A place of retirement, retreat, or seclusion.
- [T]hy tidings bring, / Departure from this happy place, our sweet / Recess, and onely consolation left / Familiar to our eyes, all places else / Inhospitable appeer and desolate, […] — 1667
•
(no longer used) An act of retiring or withdrawing; a moving back.
- And his Recesse from the Church, ye proffe not othervvise, than by the Fame and comon Opinion of those Parts; […] — 1536
•
(figurative, no longer used) A departure from a norm or position.
- The external maladies are. 1. Tumours, vvhich are recesses of the parts of mans body, from the natural state, […] — 1661
•
(no longer used) An act of retiring or withdrawing from public life, society, etc.; also, an act of living in retirement or seclusion, or a period of such retirement or seclusion.
- The soft Recesses of Your Hours improve / The Three fair Pledges of Your Happy Love: […] — 1700
•
(no longer used) The state of being withdrawn.
- Good Verse, recess and Solitude requires: / And Ease from Cares, and undisturb'd Desires. — 1695
•
(no longer used) Leisure, relaxation.
- Fair Thames she haunts, and ev'ry neighb'ring Grove / Sacred to soft Recess, and gentle Love. — 1709

verb8

•
To position (something) a distance behind another thing; to set back.
- His house stood recessed from the road, and the stables, which are to a farm what a fireplace is to a house, were behind, their lower portions being lost amid bushes of laurel. — 1874
•
(US) To temporarily suspend (a meeting, the proceedings of an official body, etc.).
- When Congress is recessed, he makes himself acquainted with those free United States, of which he is the gifted son. — 1842
•
(US) Of a meeting, the proceedings of an official body, etc.: to adjourn, to take a break.
- Class will recess for 20 minutes.
- The meeting was recessed at midday.
•
(US) Of an official body: to suspend proceedings for a period of time.
- This court shall recess for its lunch break now.
- The court recessed early for the weekend.
•
[with oneself] Often preceded by in or into: to inset (something) into a recess or niche.
- That gargoyle recesses into the rest of architecture.
- Recess the screw so it does not stick out.
To make a recess in (something).
(US, informal) To make a recess appointment in respect of (someone).
•
(figurative) To conceal, to hide.
- Get near fat Mr. Dutton, and behind the screen of his prodigious elbow, you will be comfortably recessed from curious impertinents. — 1808

adjective1

(no longer used, rare) Of a place or time: distant, remote.

forms

recessed · recessing · recesses · more recess · most recess

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