Search the Dictionary

A withdrawing or retiring; a moving back; retreat; as, the recess of the tides. Every degree of ignorance being so far a recess and degradation from rationality. South. My recess hath given them confidence that I may be conquered. Eikon Basilike.

Having a recess or recesses; as, a recessed arch or wall.

or withdrawing, as from a place, a claim, or a demand. South. Mercy may rejoice upon the recessions of justice. Jer. Taylor.

Of or pertaining to recession or withdrawal. Recessional hymn, a hymn sung in a procession returning from the choir to the robing room.

Going back; receding.

The act of going before, or forward. Lunisolar precession. (Astron.) See under Lunisolar. -- Planetary precession, that part of the precession of the equinoxes which depends on the action of the planets alone. -- Precession of the equinoxes (Astron.), the slow backward motion of the equinoctial points along the eclip…

Of or pertaining to pression; as, the precessional movement of the equinoxes.

A predecessor. [Obs.] Fuller.

, gain of land by the washing up of sand or sail from the sea or a river, or by a gradual recession of the water from the usual watermark.

which constitute a racemose or compound gland, as the pancreas; also, one of the saccular recesses in the lobules of a racemose gland. Quain.

A recessed portion of a room, or a small room opening into a larger one; especially, a recess to contain a bed; a lateral recess in a library.

A recess or indentation shaped like a bay.

A window forming a bay or recess in a room, and projecting outward from the wall, either in a rectangular, polygonal, or semicircular form; -- often corruptly called a bow window.

A recess in a room for a bed. Of the three bedrooms, two have fireplaces, and all are of fair size, with windows and bedsite well placed. Quart. Rev.

Any thing or place resembling the breast; a supporting surface; an inner recess; the interior; as, the bosom of the earth. "The bosom of the ocean." Addison.

Characterized by recesses or sheltered hollows.

in a garden, made with boughs of trees or vines, etc., twined together; an arbor; a shady recess.

Any boxlike inclosure or recess; a casing.

spacious; extended; broad; as, a capacious vessel, room, bay, or harbor. In the capacious recesses of his mind. Bancroft.

A conical recess, or indentation, in the end of a shaft or other work, to receive the point of a center, on which the work can turn, as in a lathe.