Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • intransitive verb To withdraw formally from membership in a state, union, or other political entity.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To go apart; retire; withdraw from fellowship, communion, or association; separate one's self from others or from some association; specifically, to withdraw from a political or religious organization: as, certain ministers seceded from the Church of Scotland about the year 1733; certain of the United States of America attempted to secede and form an independent government in 1860–61.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To withdraw from fellowship, communion, or association; to separate one's self by a solemn act; to draw off; to retire; especially, to withdraw from a political or religious body.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb intransitive To split from or to withdraw from membership of a political union, an alliance or an organisation.
  • verb transitive, uncommon To split or to withdraw one or more constituent entities from membership of a political union, an alliance or an organisation.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • verb withdraw from an organization or communion

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin sēcēdere, to withdraw : sē-, apart; see s(w)e- in Indo-European roots + cēdere, to go; see ked- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin secedere, from se- ("apart") + cedere ("to go").

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