Emma Marris 
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Sequester is a word that has important legal and scientific uses, and a long history besides. In fact, it can be traced back to the Latin preposition secus, meaning, well, “beside” or “alongside.” Setting someone or something apart (figuratively “to the side”) from the rest is sequester’s raison d’être. We frequently hear it in the context of the courtroom, as juries are sometimes sequestered for the safety of their members or to prevent the influence of outside sources on a verdict. It is also possible, legally speaking, to sequester property—sequester can mean both “to seize” and “to deposit” property by a writ of sequestration. The scientific sense of sequester most often encountered these days has to do with the binding or absorption of carbon. Kelp forests, for example, sequester massive amounts of carbon dioxide during photosynthesis, keeping it “apart” from the atmosphere—by some estimates doing so twenty times as much as terrestrial forests. You might even say kelp’s got this sequestering thing locked up.
Synonyms
Examples of sequester in a Sentence
Rob Van Straten, Forbes, 31 Oct. 2024
President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris were sequestered in the White House situation room to monitor events, their offices said Tuesday, and to plan any U.S. reaction.
—Nabih Bulos, Los Angeles Times, 1 Oct. 2024
The state had a 5 p.m. Friday deadline to for anyone to challenge mail-in ballot applications; any ballots from those voters whose applications were challenged must be sequestered until the county elections board officials hold a hearing to adjudicate the claims.
—Mark Scolforo, Chicago Tribune, 5 Nov. 2024
The Green Burial Council estimates that a natural burial process sequesters 25 pounds of carbon dioxide by avoiding energy-intensive fertilization, watering, and maintenance.
—Livia Caligor, Architectural Digest, 31 Oct. 2024
See all Example Sentences for sequester 
Dictionary Entries Near sequester
Cite this Entry
“Sequester.” Merriam-Webster.com Dictionary, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/sequester. Accessed 1 Dec. 2024.
Copy CitationMedical Definition
sequester
1 of 2 transitive verb
sequester
2 of 2 nounLegal Definition
sequester
1 of 2 transitive verb
Note: Juries are sequestered in order to preserve their impartiality. Witnesses are sequestered so that their testimony is not influenced by the testimony of prior witnesses.
sequester
2 of 2 nounTransitive verb
Anglo-French sequestrer, from Middle French, from Latin sequestrare to hand over to a trustee, from sequester third party to whom disputed property is entrusted, agent, from secus beside, otherwise
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