Obs. exc. dial. [Etymology uncertain.]
1. A peat-bog; also a piece of peat, a turf.
1636. R. James, Iter Lanc., 308. Ye deepe Lowe spongie mosses yet remembrance keepe Of Noah’s flood: on numbers infinite Of firre trees swaines doe in their cesses light.
1847. Jrnl. Agric. Soc., VIII. I. 100. This substance … is dug and dried into small sods called ‘turfs’ or ‘cesses’ for fuel.
2. ‘A space of ground lying between a drain or river and the foot of its bank’ (E. Peacock, N.-W. Linc. Gloss., E. D. S.); a haugh. b. ‘The fore-shore of a drain or river’ (Ibid.).
1874. Ancholme Navigation Notice, in E. Peacock, N.-W. Linc. Gloss., s.v., The occupiers of the land adjoining the cesses of the Navigation … are authorized to discharge all persons trespassing thereon.
