sequester
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /sɪˈkwɛs.tə/
ipa: /səˈkwɛs.tə/
ipa: /sɪˈkwɛs.tɚ/
ipa: /səˈkwɛs.tɚ/
rhymes: -ɛstə(ɹ)
Forms: form: sequesters
form: sequestering
form: sequestered
form: sequestered
Etymology: From Middle English sequestren (verb) and sequestre (noun), from Old French sequestrer, from Late Latin sequestrō (“separate, give up for safekeeping”), from Latin sequester (“mediator, depositary”), probably originally meaning "follower", from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“follow”).
Senses: examples: text: The jury was sequestered from the press by the judge's order.
text: when men most sequester themselves from action
ref: 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Will[iam] Stansby [for Matthew Lownes], published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):
glosses: To separate from all external influence; to seclude; to withdraw.
examples: text: The coal burning plant was ordered to sequester its CO₂ emissions.
text: There has been some investigation into the potential of seaweeds as a carbon store, and although more is needed, one study says that seaweed habitats are believed to be the most productive of all coastal vegetated ecosystems, and suggested that the world’s seaweed sequesters as much carbon as all the planet’s seagrass meadows, saltmarshes and mangroves combined.
ref: 2023 September 25, Vincent Doumeizel, “Opinion: Seaweed is nutritious, not slimy. Eating it could save the world.”, in CNN:
glosses: To separate in order to store.
examples: text: I had wholly sequestered my thoughts from civil affairs.
ref: a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount S. Alban. […], London: […] I. Hauiland for Humphrey Robinson, […], published 1629, →OCLC:
synonyms: word: allocate
word: appropriate
word: assign
word: dedicate
word: detach
word: designate
word: earmark
word: preselect
word: put aside
word: secern
word: secernate
word: separate
word: sepose
word: sequester
word: set apart
word: set aside
glosses: To set apart; to put aside; to remove; to separate from other things.
topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: To prevent an ion in solution from behaving normally by forming a coordination compound.
topics: law
glosses: To temporarily remove (property) from the possession of its owner and hold it as security against legal claims.
examples: c. 1694, Robert South, sermon XXIV
It was his tailor and his cook, his fine fashions and his French ragouts, which sequestered him.
glosses: To cause (one) to submit to the process of sequestration; to deprive (one) of one's estate, property, etc.
examples: text: The Budget Control Act of 2011 sequestered 1.2 trillion dollars over 10 years on January 2, 2013.
topics: government
law
politics
glosses: To remove (certain funds) automatically from a budget.
qualifier: international law
glosses: To seize and hold enemy property.
examples: text: to sequester out of the world into Atlantic and Utopian politics
ref: 1644, John Milton, Areopagitica; a Speech of Mr. John Milton for the Liberty of Unlicenc’d Printing, to the Parlament of England, London: [s.n.], →OCLC:
glosses: To withdraw; to retire.
glosses: To renounce (as a widow may) any concern with the estate of her husband.
Synonyms: segregate
Derived terms: sequestrable adjective
sequestered adjective
sequestrate verb
sequestration noun
sequestrator noun
Related terms: sequel
sequence
sequacious
segue