v. Also 7 ced. [a. F. céde-r (16th c. in Littré), ad. L. cēdĕre to give way, yield, retreat. (? or directly from L.)]
† 1. intr. To give way, give place, yield to.
1633. W. Struther, True Happines, 42. It is a great gift of God to seek God; It is second to no gift, because it is the first; It succeedeth no grace, which hath no precedent, and cedeth to none that hath the perfection of all.
1673. O. Walker, Education, 266. In controversies let the master sometimes cede to his servant.
c. 1675. Sc. Pasquils (1868), 184. He only ceds to him [his father] in pedantrie.
1756. C. Lucas, Ess. Waters, III. 264. [Let] private concerns always cede to the common good.
† 2. Of possessions: To pass over to. Obs.
1756. Shenstone, Ruin’d Abbey, Wks. 1764, I. 317. This fair domain Had well nigh ceded to the slothful hands Of monks libidinous.
3. trans. To give up, grant; to yield, surrender: esp. to give up a portion of territory.
1754. A. Drummond, Trav., 256 (T.). That honour was entirely ceded to the Paphian royal race.
1787. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 316. This copy has been ceded to me as a favor.
1798. Wellington, in Gurw., Disp., I. 8. The provinces which Ld. Cornwallis had compelled him to cede to the Company.
1823. J. Marshall, Const. Opin. (1839), 269. His most Christian Majesty ceded to the Queen of Great Britain, ‘all Nova Scotia or Acadie, with its ancient boundaries.’
Hence Ceded ppl. a.
1844. Wilson, Brit. India, II. II. xii. 545. The Ceded and Conquered provinces.
1886. Yule & Burnell, Anglo-Ind. Gloss., Ceded Districts.… A name applied familiarly at the beginning of this century to the territory south of the Tungabhadra river, which was ceded to the Company by the Nizam in 1800, after the defeat and death or Tippoo Sultan.
