CESSION, noun

1. The act of giving way; a yielding to force or impulse.

2. A yielding, or surrender, as of property or rights, to another person; particularly, a surrender of conquered territory to its former proprietor or sovereign, by treaty.

3. In the civil law, a voluntary surrender of a persons effects to his creditors, to avoid imprisonment.

4. In ecclesiastical law, the leaving of a benefice without dispensation or being otherwise qualified. When an ecclesiastical person is created a bishop, or when the parson of a parish takes another benefice, without dispensation, the benefices are void by cession without resignation.