sequester

From Middle English sequestren (verb) and sequestre (noun), from Old French sequestrer,^[1] from Late Latin sequestrō (“separate, give up for safekeeping”), from Latin sequester (“mediator, depositary”), probably originally meaning "follower", from Proto-Indo-European *sekʷ- (“follow”).

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /sɪˈkwɛs.tə/, /səˈkwɛs.tə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /sɪˈkwɛs.tɚ/, /səˈkwɛs.tɚ/

• Audio (US):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɛstə(ɹ)

sequester (third-person singular simple present sequesters, present participle sequestering, simple past and past participle sequestered)

1. To separate from all external influence; to seclude; to withdraw.

   The jury was sequestered from the press by the judge's order.

   • 1594–1597, Richard Hooker, edited by J S, Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, , London: Will Stansby , published 1611, →OCLC, (please specify the page):

     when men most sequester themselves from action

2. To separate in order to store.

   The coal burning plant was ordered to sequester its CO₂ emissions.

   • 2023 September 25, Vincent Doumeizel, “Opinion: Seaweed is nutritious, not slimy. Eating it could save the world.”, in CNN‎:

     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.

4. To set apart; to put aside; to remove; to separate from other things.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:set apart

   • a. 1627 (date written), Francis , “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:

     I had wholly sequestered my thoughts from civil affairs.

5. (chemistry) To prevent an ion in solution from behaving normally by forming a coordination compound.
6. (law) To temporarily remove (property) from the possession of its owner and hold it as security against legal claims.
7. To cause (one) to submit to the process of sequestration; to deprive (one) of one's estate, property, etc.
   • c. 1694, Robert South, sermon XXIV

     It was his tailor and his cook, his fine fashions and his French ragouts, which sequestered him.

8. (transitive, US, politics, law) To remove (certain funds) automatically from a budget.

   The Budget Control Act of 2011 sequestered 1.2 trillion dollars over 10 years on January 2, 2013.

9. (international law) To seize and hold enemy property.
10. (intransitive) To withdraw; to retire.
    • 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:

      to sequester out of the world into Atlantic and Utopian politics

11. To renounce (as a widow may) any concern with the estate of her husband.

• segregate

• sequestrable adjective
• sequestered adjective
• sequestrate verb
• sequestration noun
• sequestrator noun

• sequel
• sequence
• sequacious
• segue

sequester (plural sequesters)

1. sequestration; separation
   • c. 1603–1604 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Othello, the Moore of Venice”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies  (First Folio), London: Isaac Iaggard, and Ed Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, :

     A sequester from liberty , fasting , and prayer

2. (law) A person with whom two or more contending parties deposit the subject matter of the controversy; one who mediates between two parties; a referee^[2]
3. (medicine) A sequestrum.

• requestes, sequestre

From secus (“otherwise, beside”) +‎ -tris from the contrastive suffix *-teros which is also found in magister, minister and mātertera.^[1]

• (Classical Latin) IPA^(key):
• (modern Italianate Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key):

sequester m (genitive sequestris); third declension or sequester m (genitive sequestrī); second declension

1. depositary, trustee (someone to take care of property while in dispute)
2. agent of bribery, go-between
3. mediator

Usually: Third-declension noun.

Sometimes: Second-declension noun (nominative singular in -er).

• sequestra
• sequestrum

• “sequester”, in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• sequester in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré latin-français, Hachette.