cess

See also: ċess

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /sɛs/
• Rhymes: -ɛs

Etymology 1

Etymology uncertain. Occurs in print at least as early as 1831, when Samuel Lover used the expression as one already long-established. He unambiguously stated the derivation of cess in the malediction bad cess to be an abbreviation of success.. OED speculated that it either was from success or from assessment meaning a military or governmental exaction.

Noun

cess (plural cesses)

1. (British, Ireland) An assessed tax, duty, or levy.
   • 1596, Spenser, A View of the Present State of Ireland‎^[1]:

     Cess is none other than that which you yourself called imposition...

   • 1967, G.R. Madan, Indian Social Problems (Vol-2): Social Disorganization and reconstruction‎^[2], →ISBN:

     The act provides for a levy of a cess on all coal and coke despatched from collieries in India, at such rate, not less than twenty-five paise and not more than fifty paise per ton, as may be fixed by the Central Government.

   • 2006, The Water (Prevention and Control of Pollution) Act, 1974‎^[3], Georg Thieme Verlag, pages 76–:

     Therefore it was proposed to levy a cess on local authorities which are entrusted with the duty of supplying water under the law by or under which they are constituted and on certain specified industries.

2. (British, Ireland, informal) Luck or success, typically in an unfavourable context, as in "bad cess to...". More rarely in a favourable sense such as "good cess to..."
   • 1962, News for Farmer Cooperatives‎^[4], Information Office, Farm Credit Administration:

     Midland has had good cess with using minute commercials eight television stations, cited as one example of modernizing its advertising.

   • 1965, Canada Month‎^[5]:

     It is good cess to feel the warmth and sincerity of this couple who fill the role of the Queen's representative in Canada.

   • 2004, Kevin O'Malley, Inside‎^[6], →ISBN:

     Bad cess to it, b'ys! Where's the blessed ting, at all, at all? Bad cess to it!

3. (obsolete) Bound; measure.
   • Shakespeare

     The poor jade is wrung in the withers out of all cess.

Verb

cess (third-person singular simple present cesses, present participle cessing, simple past and past participle cessed)

1. (British, Ireland) To levy a cess.
   • 1596, Spenser, A View of the Present State of Ireland‎^[7]:

     ...according to the quantity thereof, we may cess the said rent and allowance issuing thereout.

Derived terms

• bad cess

See also

• cease
• cessation

Etymology 2

Possibly from an archaic dialect word meaning “bog”.

Noun

the cess is the low area either side of the track

cess (plural cesses)

1. (rail transport) The area along either side of a railroad track which is kept at a lower level than the sleeper bottom, in order to provide drainage.
2. (obsolete, dialect) A bog, in particular a peat bog.
3. (obsolete, dialect) A piece of peat, or a turf, particularly when dried for use as fuel.

Derived terms

• cess path
• cess heave

See also

• cesspool
• cesspit

Etymology 3

From French cesser. See cease.

Verb

cess (third-person singular simple present cesses, present participle cessing, simple past and past participle cessed)

1. (obsolete, law) To cease; to neglect.
   • 1827, John Perkins, A Profitable Book, Treating of the Laws of England‎^[8]:

     And therefore, if there be lord, mesne, and tenant, and the tenant doth cess, and the mesne takes a wife and dies, his wife shall not have dower of the tenancy...

Anagrams

• CSEs, ECSS, ESCs, secs, secs.

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Swedish

Noun

cess n

1. C-flat

Declension

Declension of cess
	Singular		Plural
	Indefinite	Definite	Indefinite	Definite
Nominative	cess	cesset	cess	cessen
Genitive	cess	cessets	cess	cessens

Related terms

• ciss