Recess vs Respite - What's the difference?

recess | respite | Related terms |

As nouns the difference between recess and respite

is that recess is a break, pause or vacation while respite is a brief interval of rest or relief.

As verbs the difference between recess and respite

is that recess is to inset into something, or to recede while respite is to delay or postpone.

As an adjective recess

is remote, distant (in time or place).

recess

English

Noun

(es)

(countable, or, uncountable) A break, pause or vacation.

Spring recess offers a good chance to travel.

* Macaulay

The recess of Parliament lasted six weeks.

An inset, hole, space or opening.

Put a generous recess behind the handle for finger space.

* Washington Irving

a bed which stood in a deep recess

(US) A time of play, usually, on a playground.

Students who do not listen in class will not play outside during recess .

A decree of the imperial diet of the old German empire.

(archaic) A withdrawing or retiring; a moving back; retreat.

the recess of the tides

* South

every degree of ignorance being so far a recess and degradation from rationality

* Eikon Basilike

My recess hath given them confidence that I may be conquered.

(archaic) The state of being withdrawn; seclusion; privacy.

* Sir M. Hale

In the recess of the jury they are to consider the evidence.

* Dryden

Good verse recess and solitude requires.

(archaic) A place of retirement, retreat, secrecy, or seclusion.

* Milton

Departure from his happy place, our sweet / Recess , and only consolation left.

A secret or abstruse part.

the difficulties and recesses of science

(botany, zoology) A sinus.

Synonyms

* (a break) break, day off, pause, vacation

Derived terms

* recess appointment * recession * recessive

Verb

(es)

To inset into something, or to recede.

Wow, look at how that gargoyle recesses into the rest of architecture.

Recess the screw so it does not stick out.

To take or declare a break.

This court shall recess for its normal two hour lunch now.

Class will recess for 20 minutes.

(informal) To appoint, with a recess appointment.

* 2013 , Michael Grunwald, "Cliff Dweller", in , ISSN 0040-781X, volume 181, number 1, 2013 January 14, page 27:

To the National Rifle Association's delight, the Senate has hobbled the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives by failing to confirm a director since 2006, but Obama hasn't made a recess appointment. "The President's view of his own power is a constrained one," says White House counsel Kathryn Ruemmler. "Many of his nominees have languished, but he's only recessed the ones that were critical to keep agencies functioning."

To make a recess in.

to recess a wall

Adjective

(head)

(obsolete, rare) Remote, distant (in time or place).

Thomas Salusbury: Galileo's Dialogue Concerning the Two Chief World Systems:''''' ''I should think it best in the subsequent discourses to begin to examine whether the Earth be esteemed immoveable, as it hath been till now believed by most men, or else moveable, as some ancient Philosophers held, and others of not very '''recesse times were of opinion;

Anagrams

* ----

respite

English

Noun

(en noun)

A brief interval of rest or relief.

* Denham

Some pause and respite only I require.

* Shakespeare

I crave but four day's respite .

*, chapter=10

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=It was a joy to snatch some brief respite , and find himself in the rectory drawing–room. Listening here was as pleasant as talking; just to watch was pleasant. The young priests who lived here wore cassocks and birettas; their faces were fine and mild, yet really strong, like the rector's face; and in their intercourse with him and his wife they seemed to be brothers.}}

* 2013 May 23, (Sarah Lyall), " British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party," New York Times (retrieved 29 May 2013):

Mr. Cameron had a respite Thursday from the negative chatter swirling around him when he appeared outside 10 Downing Street to denounce the murder a day before of a British soldier on a London street.

(legal) A reprieve, especially from a sentence of death.

(legal) The delay of appearance at court granted to a jury beyond the proper term.

Verb

(en-verb)

To delay or postpone.