noun

• (countable) A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.
  "Put a generous recess behind the handle for finger space."
• (countable) A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.
  "[T]he Harmony, Proportion and Beauty of Buildings are equally admirable, vvhether they be executed in plain Free-ſtone, or the moſt beautiful Marble; vvhether the Carvings or Mouldings be gilt or not; the Receſſes or Panels in the VValls be curiouſly painted, or only plaiſter'd."
• (countable) A depressed, hollow, or indented space; also, a hole or opening.
• (countable) A hidden, innermost, or inaccessible place or part of a place.
  "The recesses of the forest answered well the purposes of concealment, and Lucy was useful both as an unsuspected messenger, and also for the intelligence she was able to obtain."

adj

• (obsolete, rare) Of a place or time: distant, remote.
  "[…] I ſhould think it beſt in the ſubſequent diſcourſes to begin to examine vvhether the Earth be eſteemed immoveable, as it hath been till novv believed by moſt men, or elſe moveable, as ſome ancient Philoſophers held, and others of not very receſſe times vvere of opinion; and if it be moveable, to enquire of vvhat kind its motion may be?"

verb

• (transitive)
  "His house stood recessed from the road, and the stables, which are to a farm what a fireplace is to a house, were behind, their lower portions being lost amid bushes of laurel."
• (transitive)
  "to recess a wall"
• (transitive)
  "That gargoyle recesses into the rest of architecture."
• (transitive)
  "Get near fat Mr. Dutton, and behind the screen of his prodigious elbow, you will be comfortably recessed from curious impertinents."