sequester

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Sequestered p. pr. & vb. n. Sequestering. ] [ F. séquestrer, L. sequestrare to give up for safe keeping, from sequester a depositary or trustee in whose hands the thing contested was placed until the dispute was settled. Cf. Sequestrate. ] 1. (Law) To separate from the owner for a time; to take from parties in controversy and put into the possession of an indifferent person; to seize or take possession of, as property belonging to another, and hold it till the profits have paid the demand for which it is taken, or till the owner has performed the decree of court, or clears himself of contempt; in international law, to confiscate. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To cause (one) to submit to the process of sequestration; to deprive (one) of one's estate, property, etc. [ 1913 Webster ]

It was his tailor and his cook, his fine fashions and his French ragouts, which sequestered him. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To set apart; to put aside; to remove; to separate from other things. [ 1913 Webster ]

I had wholly sequestered my civil affairss. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To cause to retire or withdraw into obscurity; to seclude; to withdraw; -- often used reflexively. [ 1913 Webster ]

When men most sequester themselves from action. Hooker. [ 1913 Webster ]

A love and desire to sequester a man's self for a higher conversation. Bacon. [ 1913 Webster ]

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v. i. 1. To withdraw; to retire. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

To sequester out of the world into Atlantic and Utopian politics. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) To renounce (as a widow may) any concern with the estate of her husband. [ 1913 Webster ]