The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

Sequestration \Seq`ues*tra"tion\, n. [L. sequestratio: cf. F.
   s['e]questration.]
   1.
      (a) (Civil & Com. Law) The act of separating, or setting
          aside, a thing in controversy from the possession of
          both the parties that contend for it, to be delivered
          to the one adjudged entitled to it. It may be
          voluntary or involuntary.
      (b) (Chancery) A prerogative process empowering certain
          commissioners to take and hold a defendant's property
          and receive the rents and profits thereof, until he
          clears himself of a contempt or performs a decree of
          the court.
      (c) (Eccl. Law) A kind of execution for a rent, as in the
          case of a beneficed clerk, of the profits of a
          benefice, till he shall have satisfied some debt
          established by decree; the gathering up of the fruits
          of a benefice during a vacancy, for the use of the
          next incumbent; the disposing of the goods, by the
          ordinary, of one who is dead, whose estate no man will
          meddle with. --Craig. --Tomlins. --Wharton.
      (d) (Internat. Law) The seizure of the property of an
          individual for the use of the state; particularly
          applied to the seizure, by a belligerent power, of
          debts due from its subjects to the enemy. --Burrill.
          [1913 Webster]

   2. The state of being separated or set aside; separation;
      retirement; seclusion from society.
      [1913 Webster]

            Since Henry Monmouth first began to reign, . . .
            This loathsome sequestration have I had. --Shak.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. Disunion; disjunction. [Obs.] --Boyle.
      [1913 Webster]
      [1913 Webster]

WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):

sequestration
    n 1: the act of segregating or sequestering; "sequestration of
         the jury" [syn: segregation, sequestration] [ant:
         desegregation, integrating, integration]
    2: the action of forming a chelate or other stable compound with
       an ion or atom or molecule so that it is no longer available
       for reactions
    3: a writ that authorizes the seizure of property
    4: seizing property that belongs to someone else and holding it
       until profits pay the demand for which it was seized [syn:
       sequestration, requisition]

Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SEQUESTRATION, chancery practice. The process of sequestration is a writ of
commission, sometimes directed to the sheriff, but most usually, to four or
more commissioners of the complainant's own nomination, authorizing them to
enter upon the real or personal estate of the defendant, and to take the
rents, issues and profits into their own hands, and keep possession of, or
pay the same as the court shall order and direct, until the party who is in
contempt shall do that which he is enjoined to do, and which is specially
mentioned in the writ. 1 Harr. Ch. 191; Newl. Ch. Pr. 18; Blake's Ch. Pr.
103.
     2. Upon the return of non est inventus to a commission of rebellion, a
sergeant-at-arms may be moved for; and if he certifies that the defendant
cannot be taken, a motion may be made upon his certificate, for an order for
a sequestration. 2 Madd. Chan. 203; Newl. Ch. Pr. 18; Blake's Ch. Pr. 103.
     3. Under a sequestration upon mesne process, as in respect of a
contempt for want of appearance or answer, the sequestrators may take
possession of the party's personal property and keep him out of possession;
but no sale can take place, unless perhaps to pay expenses; for this process
is only to form the foundation of taking the bill pro confesso. After a
decree it may be sold. See 3 Bro. C. C. 72; 2 Cox, 224; 1 Ves. jr. 86; 3
Bro. C. C. 372; 2 Madd. Ch. Pr. 206. See, generally, as to this species of
sequestration, 19 Vin. Abr. 325; Bac. Ab. h.t.; Com.; Chancery, D 7, Y 4; 1
Hov. Supp. to Ves. jr. 25 to 29; 1 Vern. by Raith. 58, note 1; Id. 421, note
1.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SEQUESTRATION, contracts. A species of deposit, which two or more persons,
engaged in litigation about anything, make of the thing in contest to an
indifferent person, who binds himself to restore it when the issue is
decided, to the party to whom it is adjudged to belong. Louis. Code, art.
2942; Story on Bailm: Sec. 45. Vide 19 Vin. Ab. 325; 1 Supp. to Yes. jr. 29;
1 Vern. 58, 420; 2 Ves. jr. 23; Bac. Ab. h.t. 2. This is called a
conventional sequestration, to distinguish it from a judicial sequestration,
which is considered in the preceding article. Sec Dalloz, Dict. mot
Sequestre.



Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):

SEQUESTRATION, Louisiana practice. The Code of Practice in civil cases in
Louisiana, defines and makes the following provisions on the subject of
sequestration. Art. 269. Sequestration is a mandate of the court, ordering
the sheriff, in certain cases, to take in his possession, and to keep a
thing of which another person has the possession, until after the decision
of a suit, in order that it be delivered to him who shall be adjudged
entitled to have the property or possession of that thing. This is what is
properly called a judicial sequestration. Vide 1 Mart. R. 79; 1 L. R. 439;
Civil Code of Lo. 2941; 2948.
     2.-Art. 270. In this acceptation, the word sequestration does not mean
a judicial deposit, because sequestration may exist together with the right
of administration, while mere deposit does not admit it.
     3.-Art. 271. All species of property, real or personal, as well as the
revenue proceeding from the same, may be sequestered.
     4.-Art. 272. Obligations and titles may also be sequestered, when their
ownership is in dispute.
     5.-Art. 273. Judicial sequestration is generally ordered only at the
request of one of the parties to a suit; there are cases, nevertheless,
where it is decreed by the court without such request, or is the consequence
of the execution of judgments.
     6.-Art. 274. The court may order, ex officio, the sequestration of real
property in suits, where the ownership of such property is in dispute and
when one of the contending parties does not seem to have a more apparent
right to the possession than the other. In such cases, sequestration may be
ordered to continue, until the question of ownership shall have been
decided.
     7.-Art. 275. Sequestration may be ordered at the request of one of the
parties in a suit in the following cases: 1. When one who had possessed for
more than one year, has been evicted through violence, and sues to be
restored to his possession. 2. When one sues for the possession of movable
property, or of a slave, and fears that the party having possession, may ill
treat the slave or send either that slave, or the property in dispute, out
of the jurisdiction of the court, during the pendency of the suit. 3. When
one claims the ownership, or the possession of real property, and has good
ground to apprehend, that the defendant may make use of his possession to
dilapidate or to waste the fruits or revenues produced by such property, or
convert them to his own use. 4. When a woman sues for a separation from bed
and board, or only for a separation of property from her husband, and has
reason to apprehend that he will ruin her dotal property, or waste the
fruits or revenues produced by the same during the pendency of the action.
5. When one has petitioned for a stay of proceedings, and a meeting of his
creditors, and such creditors fear that he may avail himself of such stay of
proceedings, to place the whole, or a part of his property, out of their
reach. 6. A creditor by special mortgage shall have the power of
sequestering the mortgaged property, when he apprehends that it will be
removed out of the state before he can have the benefit of his mortgage, and
will make oath of the facts which induced his apprehension.
     8.-Art. 276. A plaintiff wishing to obtain an order of sequestration in
any one of the cases above provided, must annex to the petition in which he
prays for such an order, an affidavit, setting forth the cause for which he
claims such order, he must besides, execute his obligation in favor of the
defendant, for such sum as the court shall determine, with the surety of one
good and solvent person, residing within the jurisdiction of the court, to
be responsible for such damages as the defendant may sustain, in case such
sequestration should have been wrongfully obtained.
     9.-Art. 277. When security is given in order to obtain the
sequestration of real property which brings a revenue, the judge must
require that it be given for an amount sufficient to compensate the
defendant, not only for all damage which he may sustain, but also for the
privation of such revenue, during the pendency of the action.
     10.-Art. 278. The plaintiff when he prays for a sequestration of the
property of one who has failed, is not required to give such security,
though that property bring in a revenue.
     11.-Art. 279. A defendant against whom a mandate of sequestration has
been obtained, except in cases of failure, may have the same set aside, by
executing his obligation in favor of the sheriff, with one good and solvent
surety, for whatever amount the judge may determine, as being equal to the
value of the property to be left in his possession.
     12.-Art. 280. The security thus given by the defendant, when the
property sequestrated consists in movables or in slaves, shall be
responsible that he shall not send away the same out of the jurisdiction of
the court; that he shall not make an improper use of them; and that he will
faithfully present them, after definitive judgment, in case he should be
decreed to restore the same to the plaintiff.
     13.-Art. 281. As regards landed property, this security is given to
prevent the defendant, while in possession, from wasting the property, and
for the faithful restitution of the fruits that he may have received since
the demand, or of their value in the event of his being cast in the suit.
     14.-Art. 282. When the sheriff has sequestered property pursuant to an
order of the court, he shall, after serving the petition and the copy of the
order of sequestration on the defendant, send him return in writing to the
clerk of the court which gave the order, stating in the same in what manner
the order was executed, and annex to such return a true and minute inventory
of the property sequestered, drawn by him, in the presence of two witnesses.
     15.-Art. 283. The sheriff, while he retains possession of sequestered
property, is bound to take proper care of the same and to administer the
same, if it be of such nature as to admit of it, as a prudent father of a
family administers his own affairs. He may confide them to the care of
guardians or overseers, for whose acts he remains responsible, and he will
be entitled to receive a just compensation for his administration, to be
determined by the court, to be paid to him out of the proceeds of the
property sequestered, if judgment be given in favor of the plaintiff.