Definition of "recede" []

• To move back or away from a limit, point, or mark: waited for the floodwaters to recede. (verb-intransitive)
• To slope backward. (verb-intransitive)
• To become or seem to become fainter or more distant: Eventually, my unhappy memories of the place receded. (verb-intransitive)
• To withdraw or retreat. (verb-intransitive)
• To yield or grant to one formerly in possession; cede (something) back. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "The Court is unwilling, however, to recede from the position announced in its repeated decisions."
• "According to these proxies, the climatic evolution of East Africa over the past 150 years (‘modern climate†™) is characterized by a drastic dislocation around 1880, when lake levels dropped notably and glaciers started to recede from the latest maximum extent."
• "It required an effort for her to recede from the comfortable habit of thought she had attained to the point of view from which the aspirations of the soul had appeared of more importance than the satisfactions of the body."