Definitions

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

  • noun The act of seceding.
  • noun The withdrawal of 11 Southern states from the Union in 1860–1861, precipitating the US Civil War.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun The act of seceding or withdrawing; withdrawal; retirement; seclusion; detachment; separation.
  • noun Specifically, the act of seceding or withdrawing from a religious or political organization or association; formal withdrawal.
  • noun In Scottish eccles. hist., the separation from the Established Church of Scotland which originated in 1733; hence, the whole body of the members of the Secession Church (which see, below).
  • noun In United States history, the attempted withdrawal, in 1860–61, of eleven States from the Union. See Confederate States, under confederate.

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

  • noun The act of seceding; separation from fellowship or association with others, as in a religious or political organization; withdrawal.
  • noun (U.S. Hist.) The withdrawal of a State from the national Union.
  • noun (in Scotland). See Seceder.

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

  • noun The act of seceding.

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

  • noun the withdrawal of eleven southern states from the Union in 1860 which precipitated the American Civil War
  • noun an Austrian school of art and architecture parallel to the French art nouveau in the 1890s
  • noun formal separation from an alliance or federation

Etymologies

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

[Latin sēcessiō, sēcessiōn-, from sēcessus, past participle of sēcēdere, to secede; see secede.]

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Examples

Comments

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  • I've been mesmerized all morning by this animated page. Even though some of its facts are wrong.

    April 1, 2008

  • There is the photographic secession movement in the early 1900s

    Stieglitz: "Yours truly, for the present, and there'll be others when the show opens. The idea of Secession is hateful to Americans - they'll be thinking of the Civil War. I'm not. Photo-Secession actually means a seceding from the accepted idea of what constitutes a photograph."

    January 7, 2013