sequester
Americanverb (used with object)
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to remove or withdraw into solitude or retirement; seclude.
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to keep apart from others; segregate or isolate.
The jury was sequestered until a verdict was reached.
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Law. to remove (property) temporarily from the possession of the owner; seize and hold, as the property and income of a debtor, until legal claims are satisfied.
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International Law. to requisition, hold, and control (enemy property).
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to trap (a chemical in the atmosphere or environment) and isolate it in a natural or artificial storage area.
There are processes to sequester carbon from a power plant's exhaust gases.
Plants can sequester toxins and store them in their tissues.
noun
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an act or instance of sequestering; separation; isolation.
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domestic programs starved for cash by the federal sequester.
verb
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to remove or separate
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(usually passive) to retire into seclusion
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law to take (property) temporarily out of the possession of its owner, esp until the claims of creditors are satisfied or a court order is complied with
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international law to requisition or appropriate (enemy property)
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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sequestersimple
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sequesterssimple
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have sequesteredperfect
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has sequesteredperfect
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am sequesteringprogressive
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are sequesteringprogressive
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is sequesteringprogressive
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have been sequesteringperfect progressive
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has been sequesteringperfect progressive
Past
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sequesteredsimple
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had sequesteredperfect
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was sequesteringprogressive
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were sequesteringprogressive
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had been sequesteringperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of sequester
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English sequestren, from Latin sequestrāre “to put in hands of a trustee,” derivative of sequester “trustee, depositary”
Explanation
The word sequester describes being kept away from others. If your sister tells you to stay out of the way so she can cook dinner for her new boyfriend, you might sequester yourself in your room. Legal types may be familiar with the word sequester since it’s often used in relation to a jury for an important trial. In that case, members of the jury are sequestered, meaning they aren't allowed to watch the news or read articles that could influence their judgment. However, sequester can describe anyone who is isolated or hidden away from others, like a pop star sequestered in a hotel room, protected from fans' mania below.
Vocabulary lists containing sequester
The Legend of Sleepy Hollow
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"The Odyssey" by Homer, Books 14–18
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100 SAT words Beginning with "S"
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
"Forests globally currently sequester about one-third of anthropogenic carbon dioxide emissions," said Medlyn.
From Barron's ● Jan. 6, 2026
"At maturity, these plants will shade the creek and keep water temperatures down, not to mention sequester carbon from the atmosphere."
From Salon ● Aug. 3, 2024
“A larger tree planted would mature more quickly and sequester more carbon earlier in the lifespan of the project.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 19, 2024
Working with Valerie Kickhoefer in Rome’s lab, the group then found that the drug-resistant cancer cells generated many more vaults than nonresistant ones, suggesting the structures might sequester or expel chemotherapies.
From Science Magazine ● Jun. 6, 2024
Whenever he returned to Brooklyn to prepare for the next tournament or match, he tended to sequester himself in his apartment.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
Each company that chooses to stay private sequesters wealth creation in the hands of a select few, rather than giving Main Street investors a chance to take a stake in the success of American enterprise.
From Barron's ● Nov. 26, 2025
Urchins devour kelp, which sequesters carbon and serves as shelter and food for a vast array of marine life.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 11, 2025
In a 2021 piece for Curbed about stewarding urban nature, Stephanie Foo drew motivation from a London plane that annually sequesters an estimated 10,500 tons of carbon dioxide.
From Slate ● Mar. 16, 2024
When added to soils, biochar sequesters carbon in the soil for centuries.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 7, 2023
One day Etienne sits with Marie-Laure and reads to her in his feathery voice; the next he suffers from what he calls a headache and sequesters himself inside his study behind a locked door.
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
The soft tissue and lipids inside that many carcasses "translates to roughly 6.7 million tonnes of sequestered carbon," Xiaotong Peng said.
From Barron's ● Jun. 10, 2026
A major reason for the lower number of injuries is that children today are sequestered at home in front of computer screens rather than playing outdoors.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 28, 2026
Now, of course, that’s a ridiculous premise because it suggests that people only come to the president, he never goes anywhere else, that he should be sequestered in this fortress.
From Slate ● May 4, 2026
Special housing, whether on a military base, in a palace or sequestered in a guarded compound, is one such reward and inducement.
From Salon ● Mar. 24, 2026
They then sequestered themselves for a few minutes to discuss the schedule.
From "Endgame" by Frank Brady
It also has one of the strongest offerings when it comes to capturing and sequestering carbon.
From Barron's ● Dec. 9, 2025
“We want to give these students just an idea that they live in a special area, and the role these trees play in sequestering carbon from our atmosphere.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 30, 2025
The peat here runs to a depth of at least nine metres, which means it has been forming for more than 9,000 years and sequestering carbon for all that time.
From BBC ● Jul. 6, 2025
It is produced in large quantities after flu is present and lowers the severity of infection by sequestering the virus so that it can't make copies of itself, or replicate.
From Science Daily ● Nov. 14, 2024
Instead of sequestering herself in her bedroom with her violin, she would walk the mile and a half to the house on Winslow right after school, where Mia would be hard at work.
From "Little Fires Everywhere" by Celeste Ng
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
