Definition of recess

• n. - A withdrawing or retiring; a moving back; retreat; as, the recess of the tides.
• n. - The state of being withdrawn; seclusion; privacy.
• n. - Remission or suspension of business or procedure; intermission, as of a legislative body, court, or school.
• n. - Part of a room formed by the receding of the wall, as an alcove, niche, etc.
• n. - A place of retirement, retreat, secrecy, or seclusion.
• n. - Secret or abstruse part; as, the difficulties and recesses of science.
• n. - A sinus.
• v. t. - To make a recess in; as, to recess a wall.
• n. - A decree of the imperial diet of the old German empire.