Word.ws English Dictionary

sequester

UK/sɪˈkwɛs.tə//sɪˈkwɛs.tɚ/

sequester verb: to separate from all external influence; to seclude; to withdraw.

Verb

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.
    • when men most sequester themselves from action[1594], Richard Hooker, edited by J[ohn] S[penser], Of the Lawes of Ecclesiastical Politie, […], London: […] Iohn Windet, […], →OCLC, (please specify the page)
  2. To separate in order to store.
    • The coal burning plant was ordered to sequester its CO₂ emissions.
    • 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...2023 September 25, Vincent Doumeizel, “Opinion: Seaweed is nutritious, not slimy. Eating it could save the world.”, in CNN
  3. To set apart; to put aside; to remove; to separate from other things.
    • I had wholly sequestered my thoughts from civil affairs.a. 1627 (date written), Francis [Bacon], “Considerations Touching a Warre with Spaine. […]”, in William Rawley, editor, Certaine Miscellany Works of the Right Honourable Francis Lo. Verulam, Viscount...
  4. To prevent an ion in solution from behaving normally by forming a coordination compound.
  5. To temporarily remove (property) from the possession of its owner and hold it as security against legal claims.
  6. To cause (one) to submit to the process of sequestration; to deprive (one) of one's estate, property, etc.
    • It was his tailor and his cook, his fine fashions and his French ragouts, which sequestered him.c. 1694, Robert South, sermon XXIV
  7. (US, transitive) 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.
  8. (international law) To seize and hold enemy property.
  9. (intransitive) To withdraw; to retire.
    • to sequester out of the world into Atlantic and Utopian politics1644, 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
  10. (dated) To renounce (as a widow may) any concern with the estate of her husband.

Noun

sequester (plural sequesters)

  1. sequestration; separation
    • A sequester from liberty , fasting , and prayerc. 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...
  2. A person with whom two or more contending parties deposit the subject matter of the controversy; one who mediates between two parties; a referee
  3. A sequestrum.

sequester meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

sequester in Tamil

தனிமைப்படுத்து, ஒதுக்கு, விலக்கு, விலகு, ஏகாந்தம் நாடு, சட்ட உரிமை நிலைநாட்டப்படும் வரை

sequester in Urdu

علیحدہ کرنا, الگ کرنا, ضبط کرنا

sequester in Bengali

পৃথক করা, নির্জনে রাখা

sequester in Malayalam

hide away, isolate oneself, shut oneself away
സ്വയം ഒറ്റപ്പെടുക, ഒറ്റയ്ക്കാക്കുക, ഒറ്റതിരിക്കുക, അകറ്റുക, സ്വയം ഒളിക്കുക, അകറ്റി ഒറ്റപ്പെടുത്തുക
sequestrate, seize, confiscate
കണ്ടുകെട്ടുക, ജപ്തിചെയ്ക, പിടിച്ചെടുക്കുക, സർക്കാരിലേക്കു മുതൽ കണ്ടുകെട്ടുക, അധികാരമായി പിടിച്ചെടുക്കുക, നിയമപ്രകാരം ജപ്തിചെയ്തു കെെവശത്താക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
sequester in Kannada
ಬೇರ‍್ಪಡಿಸು, ಒಂಟಿಯಾಗಿಸು, ಒಡೆತನ ಪಡೆ

Synonyms of sequester

7 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of sequester

Forms of sequester

Verb
third-person singular presentsequesters
present participlesequestering
past participlesequestered
pastsequestered
Noun
pluralsequesters

Past tense of sequester: sequestered

Origin of sequester

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

Words formed from sequester

Words that rhyme with sequester

17 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about sequester

What does sequester mean?
Sequester means to separate from all external influence; to seclude; to withdraw.
What is sequester in Tamil?
Sequester in Tamil is தனிமைப்படுத்து, ஒதுக்கு, விலக்கு. See Sequester meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is sequester?
Sequester can be a verb or a noun.
How do you pronounce sequester?
Sequester is pronounced /sɪˈkwɛs.tə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of sequester?
The past tense of sequester is sequestered.

Words near sequester in the dictionary

  1. sequentially compact
  2. sequentialness
  3. sequents
  4. sequest
  5. sequestectomy
  6. sequester
  7. sequesterable
  8. sequestered
  9. sequesterer
  10. sequesterers
  11. sequestering

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sequester (page history and authors); sequester (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sequester (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sequester (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); sequester (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); sequester (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-sequester.ogg.

Cite this entry: “sequester.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sequester. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.