recess

Meanings

Noun

• A withdrawing or retiring; a moving back.
• A place of retirement, retreat, secrecy, or seclusion.
• A small space created by building part of a wall further back from the rest.
• A break, pause or vacation.
• A decree of the imperial diet of the old German empire.

Verb

• To inset into something, or to recede.
• To take or declare a break.
• To appoint, with a recess appointment.

Adjective

• Remote, distant.

Origin

• Mid 16th century borrowing from Latin recessus ("retreat, departure; a secret spot, nook, corner"), from recēdō + -tus.