concession

Pluralconcessions (some meanings)

1. 1
   noununcountable

   A partial yielding to another's demands or requests, made as a compromise.

   The company offered a modest concession on working hours to avoid a strike.

   Diplomats traded concessions until both governments could sign the treaty.

   Similarcompromise, accommodation, allowance

   Note

   Here the yielding is partial and bargained for. The plural suits a series of give-and-take, and the party or pressure given way to follows the preposition to. John Bright, speaking on the American question in 1865, warned that "concessions to evil always do fail." Use to for whom or what you yield to, and on for the matter yielded: a concession on hours, made to the strikers.

2. 2
   noununcountable

   An admission of defeat by a candidate following an election.

   The senator's concession ended one of the closest races in state history.

   Party officials drafted a brief concession once the final votes came in.

   Note

   Election night gives the word its most public setting, the concession speech. Al Gore's, delivered on December 13, 2000, opens with the ritual itself: he had spoken with George W. Bush and congratulated him on becoming the 43rd president. The verb behind the noun is concede, used without an object: a candidate simply concedes, and the concession is that act made public.

3. 3
   nounUSuncountable

   A right to operate a semi-independent business within premises owned by another, such as a concessions stand.

   The stadium granted the catering company a concession near the main entrance.

   Vendors bid each year for the popcorn concession at the fairgrounds.

   Similarfranchise, license, contract, permit

   Note

   The commercial cluster of meanings is chiefly American, and this right sits at its center. A host such as a stadium, fair or park lets an outside operator sell on its premises. The same word then stretches to the space, to the business itself, and to the goods sold. Context sorts them out: to bid for a concession is to seek the right, while to run one usually means the business.

4. 4
   nouncountable

   An area of land granted by a government or other authority for a particular purpose.

   The mining concession stretches about forty miles along the valley floor.

   The government carved the interior into vast concessions for rubber plantations.

   Note

   The noun moves here from the act of yielding to the thing yielded: Latin concessiō already meant "a grant, permission", and the ground handed over took the name. The purpose usually comes first, as a modifier: a mining concession, a rubber concession. Keep it apart from the right to work the land. This is the ground itself, marked out on a map, and that is the legal permission to exploit it.

5. 5
   nounUSuncountable

   The physical space or building allotted to a business that holds the right to operate there.

   The cleaning crew reached the concession just before opening time.

   A fire forced them to rebuild the concession near the parking lot.

   Similarstand, stall, kiosk, booth

6. 6
   nounUSuncountable

   A food or drink item sold from a concessions stand within a venue.

   Fans complained that every concession at the arena had doubled in price.

   Ushers restocked the concessions before the second half began.

   Similarrefreshment, snack

   Note

   Chiefly American and normally plural: concessions are the snacks and drinks themselves, bought at the game or the fair. The plural even stays plural in front of another noun in concessions stand, the counter that sells them. In the singular, the word more naturally means the business or the right to run it, so talk of the food in the plural.

7. 7
   noununcountable

   An admission that a point made by another is valid or correct.

   Her concession that the criticism was fair won her respect.

   The essay made several concessions to opposing scholars.

   Similaradmission, acknowledgment, acceptance, recognition

   Oppositedenial, rejection, refutation

8. 8
   nounUKuncountable

   A reduced price offered to certain groups, such as students or the elderly.

   The museum offers a concession for visitors over sixty-five.

   Theater tickets are cheaper if you qualify for a concession.

   Similardiscount, reduction

   Oppositesurcharge

   Note

   Box-office British: the reduced rate for students, the elderly and similar groups, which price lists often show simply as "concessions." The word stretches one step further to the eligible person, so a ticket desk can count concessions as people. In American English the same word more readily suggests a snack stand, so a mixed audience may need the plainer "discount."

9. 9
   nounrhetoricuncountable

   An admission that an opponent's point is valid, made in order to build on it or to move on to a more important argument.

   Her opening concession disarmed the critics before she pressed her real claim.

   The lawyer's strategic concessions strengthened the overall argument.

   Similaradmission, acknowledgment, allowance

   Oppositerebuttal, refutation, denial

   Note

   In rhetoric this is a term of art with a Latin twin, concessio. That is the same Latin word that gave English concession, borrowed a second time in its original form. The move is tactical, not a surrender: grant the minor point, then build on it or pass to the one that matters. Done well, it costs the speaker little and lends credibility to what follows.

10. 10
    noununcountable

    The act of conceding; the yielding, giving in, or granting of something.

    The concession of defeat did not come easily to him.

    Their gradual concession of territory weakened the alliance.

    Similarsurrender, admission, acknowledgment, acceptance, relinquishment

    Oppositeresistance, refusal, denial

    Note

    This is the general sense every other one branches from. It came through Middle French from Latin concessiō, "a grant, permission, conceding," built on concēdō. Granting was part of the word from the start, which is why it later names rights and land as well as admissions. It mostly works as a mass noun for the act itself. James Bowling Mozley, preaching at Oxford in 1876, said civil war "has been forestalled by opportune concession."

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