cede

verb \ ˈsēd \

Updated on: 12 Apr 2018

Definition of cede

ceded; ceding

transitive verb

1 : to yield or grant typically by treaty

Russia ceded Alaska to the U.S. in 1867.

2 : assign, transfer

ceded his stock holdings to his children

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ceder

noun

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Examples of cede in a Sentence

Russia ceded Alaska to the U.S. in 1867.
she reluctantly ceded her position as leader

Recent Examples of cede from the Web

But the project labor agreement basically is less competitive and cedes a lot of control to the union.

— monique garcia, chicagotribune.com, "Rauner's conflict with organized labor expands to vacant lot next to governor's mansion," 31 Mar. 2018
When the formal bidding process began for the water park project, Schlitterbahn didn’t submit a proposal, ceding to the owner of Rapids Water Park in Riviera Beach, Florida, the newspaper reported.

— joshua fechter, San Antonio Express-News, "Schlitterbahn co-owner plagued with financial, legal troubles before murder charge in boy’s death," 31 Mar. 2018
An accelerated exit of the U.S. from Syria would also raise concerns about ceding the hotly contested country to Iran and Russia.

— felicia schwartz, WSJ, "Trump Freezes Funds for Syrian Recovery, Signaling Pullback," 30 Mar. 2018
The Chicago presentation was Apple's attempt to beef up its educational presence, which has long been ceded to Google, which introduced super low-cost Chromebook laptops several years ago.

— jefferson graham, USA TODAY, "Apple's new student iPad vs. $300 Chromebooks and Windows rivals," 27 Mar. 2018
Obviously, the first candidate for picking up all of Erlich’s ceded screen time is Monica Hall (Amanda Crews), the only woman in all of Silicon Valley to receive a credit for every single episode of the HBO tech evisceration.

— refinery29.com, "T.J. Miller's Silicon Valley Exit Still Didn’t Leave Any Room For Women," 26 Mar. 2018
Elliott’s plan may include ceding to the network company about 10 billion euros of Telecom Italia debt and several thousand workers, the people said.

— daniele lepido, Bloomberg.com, "Elliott Said to Back Ferrari-Like Spinoff for Telecom Italia," 21 Mar. 2018
Some countries, like the United States, have never joined due to concerns about ceding sovereignty to an international body.

— joshua berlinger, CNN, "Philippines to withdraw from International Criminal Court," 14 Mar. 2018

These example sentences are selected automatically from various online news sources to reflect current usage of the word 'cede.' Views expressed in the examples do not represent the opinion of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Do you cede or seed control?

Cede means "to yield or grant typically by treaty." Most of the verb senses of seed are concerned with planting seeds (either literal, as of plants, or figuratively, as of ideas). However, the word may also be used to mean "to schedule (tournament players or teams) so that superior ones will not meet in early rounds." If you relinquish or yield something you are ceding it, and if you are organizing the participants in a tournament you are seeding them.

Did You Know?

Cede is often a formal term used in discussing territory and rights, but is also used less formally. So, for example, Spain ceded Puerto Rico to the U.S. in 1898, following the Spanish-American War, and the U.S. ceded control of the Panama Canal to Panama in 1999. Critics warn that we are ceding leadership in alternative-energy technology to China. Citizens of one European country or another are always worrying that their own country is ceding too much power to the European Union. A tennis player doesn't have any choice when she cedes her no. 1 ranking to a rival.

Origin and Etymology of cede

borrowed from French or Latin; French céder, borrowed from Latin cēdere "to go, move away, withdraw, yield," perhaps, if derived from an originally transitive meaning "drive away," akin to Sanskrit sedhati "(she/he) chases away," Avestan siiazdat "will chase away"

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First Known Use: 1749

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