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Tuesday January 26, 2010

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cede [seed]

verb

1. To yield or surrender; to give up; to resign; as, to cede a fortress.

• Clint Conley doesn't regularly shuffle. "There are few times when I'm willing to cede control," says the Mission of Burma bassist. "I just want to hear what I want to hear." Conley, who plays the Paradise tonight and tomorrow night with his bandmates, gave his iTouch a whirl for journalistic purposes.
  Geoff Edgers, "iPOD SHUFFLE; WHAT POPS UP WHEN YOU PUT SOMEONE'S MUSIC ON RANDOM", Boston Globe, Jan 15, 2010
• Too often, he said, people cede control of their happiness to others or to situations, such as allowing someone else's anger to make them angry or slipping into a state of helplessness and hopelessness when presented with a problem.
  Christina Hennessy, "Warning: Happiness can be contagious", Connecticut Post, Jan 14, 2010
• Terms had been offered to Tippoo, by which he was to cede half his territories, to pay two millions sterling, to renounce the French alliance, and to give up four of his sons, and four of his generals, as hostages.
  Blackwoods Edinburgh Magazine, Volume 59, No. 366 (1846)

Origin of the Word

Cede, approximately1633, derives from Latin cedere "to yield," originally "to go, leave."