recess
Meanings
- A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.
- A small space created by building part of a wall further back from the rest; a niche.
- The place in a prison where the communal lavatories are located.
- A hidden, innermost, or inaccessible place or part of a place.
- A place of retirement, retreat, or seclusion.
- An obscure, remote, or secret situation.
- A temporary stoppage of an activity; a break, a pause.
- A period of time when the proceedings of a committee, court of law, parliament, or other official body are temporarily suspended.
- A time away from studying during the school day for a meal or recreation.
- An act of retiring or withdrawing; a moving back.
- A decree or resolution of the diet of the Holy Roman Empire or the Hanseatic League.
- 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.
- Of a place or time: distant, remote.
- To position (something) a distance behind another thing; to set back.
- To make a recess (noun senses 1 and 1.1) in (something).
- Often preceded by in or into: to inset (something) into a recess or niche.
- To conceal, to hide.
- To temporarily suspend (a meeting, the proceedings of an official body, etc.).
- To make a recess appointment in respect of (someone).
- Of a meeting, the proceedings of an official body, etc.: to adjourn, to take a break.
- Of an official body: to suspend proceedings for a period of time.
- A village in County Galway, Ireland.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
The noun is borrowed from Latin recessus (“act of going back, departure, receding, retiring; (figuratively) retreat, withdrawal; (metonymically) distant, secluded, or secret spot, corner, nook, retreat; recessed part, indentation”) (also Late Latin recessus (“decree or resolution of the Diet of the Holy Roman Empire”)), from recēdō (“to go back, recede, retire, withdraw; to go away, depart; (by extension) to disappear, vanish; to separate; to stand back, be distant; to yield”) (from re- (prefix meaning ‘back, backwards’) + cēdō (“to go, move, proceed”)) + -tus (suffix forming action nouns from verbs); influenced by Middle French recès, French recès (“a break, pause; break between classes in school; school vacation; ebbing of tide; reduction”) (also Anglo-Norman recès and Old French recès (“hiding place; hollow”). Noun sense 5 (“decree or resolution of the diet of the Holy Roman Empire, etc.”) is possibly influenced by Italian recesso and refers to a decree or resolution made just before a meeting ends. The adjective and verb are derived from the noun. Cognates * Catalan recés * Italian recesso * Middle French recès (modern French recès) * Portuguese recesso * Spanish receso