Library / English Dictionary

RECESS

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A pause from doing something (as work)

Example:

he took time out to recuperate

Synonyms:

break; recess; respite; time out

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Hypernyms ("recess" is a kind of...):

pause (temporary inactivity)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "recess"):

spring break (a week or more of recess during the spring term at school)

Derivation:

recess (close at the end of a session)

Sense 2

Meaning:

An enclosure that is set back or indented

Synonyms:

niche; recess

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("recess" is a kind of...):

enclosure (a structure consisting of an area that has been enclosed for some purpose)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "recess"):

alcove; bay (a small recess opening off a larger room)

apse; apsis (a domed or vaulted recess or projection on a building especially the east end of a church; usually contains the altar)

cinerarium; columbarium (a niche for a funeral urn containing the ashes of the cremated dead)

fireplace; hearth; open fireplace (an open recess in a wall at the base of a chimney where a fire can be built)

mihrab ((Islam) a niche in the wall of a mosque that indicates the direction of Mecca)

Derivation:

recess (put into a recess)

Sense 3

Meaning:

An arm off of a larger body of water (often between rocky headlands)

Synonyms:

inlet; recess

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural objects (not man-made)

Hypernyms ("recess" is a kind of...):

body of water; water (the part of the earth's surface covered with water (such as a river or lake or ocean))

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "recess"):

cove (a small inlet)

fiord; fjord (a long narrow inlet of the sea between steep cliffs; common in Norway)

loch (a long narrow inlet of the sea in Scotland (especially when it is nearly landlocked))

Instance hyponyms:

Bristol Channel (an inlet of the Atlantic Ocean between southern Wales and southwestern England)

Gulf of Aegina; Saronic Gulf (a gulf of the Aegean on the southeastern coast of Greece)

White Sea (a large inlet of the Barents Sea in the northwestern part of European Russia)

Zuider Zee (a former inlet of the North Sea in the northern coast of the Netherlands; sealed off from the sea in 1932 by a dam that created the IJsselmeer)

Holonyms ("recess" is a part of...):

lake (a body of (usually fresh) water surrounded by land)

sea (a division of an ocean or a large body of salt water partially enclosed by land)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A small concavity

Synonyms:

corner; niche; recess; recession

Classified under:

Nouns denoting two and three dimensional shapes

Hypernyms ("recess" is a kind of...):

concave shape; concavity; incurvation; incurvature (a shape that curves or bends inward)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "recess"):

pharyngeal recess (a small recess in the wall of the pharynx)

Derivation:

recess (make a recess in)

recess (put into a recess)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A state of abeyance or suspended business

Synonyms:

deferral; recess

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("recess" is a kind of...):

abeyance; suspension (temporary cessation or suspension)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Close at the end of a session

Example:

The court adjourned

Synonyms:

adjourn; break up; recess

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "recess" is one way to...):

cease; end; finish; stop; terminate (have an end, in a temporal, spatial, or quantitative sense; either spatial or metaphorical)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

recess (a pause from doing something (as work))

Sense 2

Meaning:

Make a recess in

Example:

recess the piece of wood

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "recess" is one way to...):

indent (notch the edge of or make jagged)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

recess (a small concavity)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Put into a recess

Example:

recess lights

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "recess" is one way to...):

lay; place; pose; position; put; set (put into a certain place or abstract location)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

recess (an enclosure that is set back or indented)

recess (a small concavity)

Credits

 Context examples: 

But a still greater cunning lurked in the recesses of the Indian mind.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

A small pocket, vesicle, cave, or recess communicating with the outside of a cell and extending inward, indenting the cytoplasm and the cell membrane.

(Caveola, NCI Thesaurus)

“By Saint Ives! it is true,” cried Sir Bertrand, striding across to the recess where the ungainly, funnel-shaped, thick-ribbed engines were standing.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Deep down in the recesses of the coffin lay an emaciated figure.

(His Last Bow, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Her habit therefore was thrown off with all possible haste, and she was preparing to unpin the linen package, which the chaise-seat had conveyed for her immediate accommodation, when her eye suddenly fell on a large high chest, standing back in a deep recess on one side of the fireplace.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Tramps slouched into the recess and struck matches on the panels; children kept shop upon the steps; the schoolboy had tried his knife on the mouldings; and for close on a generation, no one had appeared to drive away these random visitors or to repair their ravages.

(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

They came and went, resided in the populous kennels, or lived obscurely in the recesses of the house after the fashion of Toots, the Japanese pug, or Ysabel, the Mexican hairless,—strange creatures that rarely put nose out of doors or set foot to ground.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

At length I wandered towards these mountains, and have ranged through their immense recesses, consumed by a burning passion which you alone can gratify.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

"You will now stand on the platform till recess," said Mr. Davis, resolved to do the thing thoroughly, since he had begun.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

What I cannot describe is, how, in the innermost recesses of my own heart, I had a lurking jealousy even of Death.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)