Emily Dickinson Lexicon

CES'SION, n. [L. cessio; Fr. cession; from L. cedo, cessum. See Cede.]

1. The act of giving way; a yielding to force or impulse. – Bacon.
2. A yielding, or surrender, as of property or rights, to another person; particularly; a surrender of conquered territory to its former proprietor or sovereign, by treaty.
3. In the civil law, a voluntary surrender of a person's effects to his creditors, to avoid imprisonment. – Encyc.
4. In ecclesiastical law, the leaving of a benefice without dispensation or being otherwise qualified. When an ecclesiastical person is created a bishop, or when the parson of a parish takes another benefice, without dispensation, the benefices are void by cession, without resignation. – Encyc.