sequester
[si-kwes-ter]
- to remove or withdraw into solitude or retirement; seclude.
- to remove or separate; banish; exile.
- to keep apart from others; segregate or isolate: The jury was sequestered until a verdict was reached.
- 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.
- International Law. to requisition, hold, and control (enemy property).
- 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.
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- an act or instance of sequestering; separation; isolation.
- sequestration(def 7): domestic programs starved for cash by the federal sequester.
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Origin of sequester
1350–1400; Middle English sequestren < Latin sequestrāre to put in hands of a trustee, derivative of sequester ‘trustee, depositary’
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for sequester
Contemporary Examples
Used, hubcap-free tires are well known to sequester standing water—a perfect breeding ground for the next generation of mosquitos.
The statement was solely focused on spending levels under the omnibus and their increase over the sequester.
The Budget Control Act of 2011 and the sequester have cut discretionary spending across the board.
And the overall funding levels, while better than the sequester, are still awfully low.
It provides $63 billion in sequester relief, which is partially offset by a $23 billion mix of spending cuts and “fees.”
Historical Examples
An undertaking of such scope was too big to sequester in any man's back yard.
Trail's EndGeorge W. Ogden
And would not every one be able to assign the reason why Clarissa Harlowe chose solitude, and to sequester herself from the world?
Clarissa, Volume 7Samuel Richardson
But beyond the pledgee and the sequester (a receiver appointed by the court) these exceptions are unimportant and disputed.
The Common LawOliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.
They could bequeath their goods without having him sequester an outrageous part.
Life on a Mediaeval BaronyWilliam Stearns Davis
He seemed rather peculiar, and perhaps it would be just as well to sequester him as far off as possible.
Kit of Greenacre FarmIzola Forrester
sequester
- to remove or separate
- (usually passive) to retire into seclusion
- 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
- international law to requisition or appropriate (enemy property)
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Word Origin
C14: from Late Latin sequestrāre to surrender for safekeeping, from Latin sequester a trustee
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
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Word Origin and History for sequester
v.
late 14c., "remove" something, "quarantine, isolate" (someone); "excommunicate;" also intransitive, "separate oneself from," from Old French sequestrer (14c.), from Late Latin sequestrare "to place in safekeeping," from Latin sequester "trustee, mediator," noun use of an adjective meaning "intermediate," which probably is related to sequi "to follow" (see sequel). Meaning "seize by authority, confiscate" is first attested 1510s. Alternative sequestrate (v.) is early 15c., from Latin sequestratus. Related: Sequestered; sequestering.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper