All 3 Uses of
recede
in
Middlemarch
- When Lydgate entered the Yew-tree Walk he saw Mr. Casaubon slowly receding with his hands behind him according to his habit, and his head bent forward.†
Chpt 4 *
- Today she had stood at the door of the tomb and seen Will Ladislaw receding into the distant world of warm activity and fellowship—turning his face towards her as he went.†
Chpt 5
- …keep even her aloof from any close knowledge of what he was doing; but gradually the terrible stringency of human need—the prospect of a too speedy death— And here Dorothea's pity turned from her own future to her husband's past—nay, to his present hard struggle with a lot which had grown out of that past: the lonely labor, the ambition breathing hardly under the pressure of self-distrust; the goal receding, and the heavier limbs; and now at last the sword visibly trembling above him!†
Chpt 5
Definition:
-
(recede) to move away or diminish (become less)The exact meaning of recede depends upon its context. For example:
- "We can't move back in until the floodwaters recede." -- diminish and move away
- "Her fear receded." -- diminished
- "The waves first advance and then recede." -- move away
- "The news story receded into the background as it was replaced by new stories." -- received diminished attention
- "a receding hairline" -- diminished hair (each year the line where hair stops growing is higher on the forehead)
- "She has a receding chin." -- sloping back (as contrasted to sticking out)