cede

verb \ ˈsēd \

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

After briefly ceding the New York baseball hierarchy to the Mets in 2015 and 2016, the Yankees emphatically cemented themselves this week as the superior club.

— james wagner, New York Times, "Luis Severino and Gary Sanchez Help Yankees Finish Four-Game Sweep of Mets," 17 Aug. 2017
In other instances, VCs have discovered that the relatively recent practice of ceding voting control has made forced resignations impossible.

— sarah mcbride, Bloomberg.com, "Benchmark's Uber Suit Signals End of Era for Imperious Founders," 11 Aug. 2017
The 'neutered' hotel VPNs, which staff and analysts said were often installed with tacit approval from authorities, already underline sensitivities of even ceding small amounts of control.

— reuters, Fortune, "How Some of China’s Plush Hotels Are Getting Around the ‘Great Firewall’," 1 Aug. 2017
William Penn once owned it, Philly sought to annex it, and Camden unintentionally ceded it to Pennsauken and later tried, unsuccessfully, to get it back, Shinn says.

— kevin riordan, Philly.com, "For a little piece of Venezuela in the Delaware, past will be future," 23 July 2017
Even in the earlier battle for East Mosul, IS fighters ceded one neighbourhood after another, and retreated west over the Tigris and onto Syria.

— The Economist, "Islamic State nears its end," 5 July 2017
The decision to cede ground to Russia on the question of Assad's future comes on the eve of President Donald Trump's first face-to-face meeting next week with President Vladimir Putin on the sidelines of the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany.

— chicagotribune.com, "Tillerson ready to let Russia decide Assad's fate," 3 July 2017
The latent Humberts among us might like those budding hard bodies on the tube, but there seems to be a cost in ceding the cultural landscape to the wrinkle-free.

— mark jacobson, Daily Intelligencer, "The Generation Gap in My Living Room," 30 June 2017
Ceding control of merchandising has become a necessary means of doing business and, as more people turn to Amazon as their first port of call when online shopping, Nike doesn’t have a lot of choice.

— lara o’reilly, WSJ, "CMO Today: Fox’s Sky Bid Gets More Scrutiny; Nike Capitulates to Amazon; NYT’s Editorial/Ad Divide," 29 June 2017

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.

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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