Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SE-QUES'TER, v.t. [Fr. séquestrer; It. sequestrare; Sp. sequestrar; Low L. sequestro, to sever or separate, to put into the hands of an indifferent person, as a deposit; sequester, belonging to mediation or umpirage, and as a noun, an umpire, referee, mediator. This word is probably a compound of se and the root of quæstus, quæsitus, sought. See Question.]

1. To separate from the owner for a time; to seize or take possession of some property which belongs to another, and hold it till the profits have paid the demand for which it is taken. Formerly the goods of a defendant in chancery, were, in the last resort, sequestered and detained to enforce the decrees of the court. And now the profits of a benefice are sequestered to pay the debts of ecclesiastics. – Blackstone.
2. To take from parties in controversy and put into the possession of an indifferent person. – Encyc.
3. To put aside; to remove; to separate from other things. I had wholly sequestered my civil affaire. – Bacon.
4. To sequester one's self, to separate one's self from society; to withdraw or retire; to seclude one's self for the sake of privacy or solitude; as, to sequester one's self from action. Hooker.
5. To cause to retire or withdraw into obscurity. It was his tailor and his cook, his fine fashions and his French ragouts which sequestered him. – South.