GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found one definition

1.       
   Possess , v. t. [imp. & p. p. Possessed ; p. pr. & vb. n. Possessing.] [L. possessus, p. p. of possidere to have, possess, from an inseparable prep. (cf. Position) + sedere to sit. See Sit.]
   To occupy in person; to hold or actually have in one's own keeping; to have and to hold.
   1913 Webster
   Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
   Jer. xxxii. 15.
   
   1913 Webster
   Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
   After offense returning, to regain
   Love once possessed.
   Milton.
   
   1913 Webster
   To have the legal title to; to have a just right to; to be master of; to own; to have; as, to possess property, an estate, a book.
   1913 Webster
   I am yours, and all that I possess.
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   To obtain occupation or possession of; to accomplish; to gain; to seize.
   1913 Webster
   How . . . to possess the purpose they desired.
   Spenser.
   
   1913 Webster
   To enter into and influence; to control the will of; to fill; to affect; -- said especially of evil spirits, passions, etc. “Weakness possesseth me.”
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   Those which were possessed with devils.
   Matt. iv. 24.
   
   1913 Webster
   For ten inspired, ten thousand are possessed.
   Roscommon.
   
   1913 Webster
   To put in possession; to make the owner or holder of property, power, knowledge, etc.; to acquaint; to inform; -- followed by of or with before the thing possessed, and now commonly used reflexively.
   1913 Webster
   I have possessed your grace of what I purpose.
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   Record a gift . . . of all he dies possessed
   Unto his son.
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   We possessed our selves of the kingdom of Naples.
   Addison.
   
   1913 Webster
   To possess our minds with an habitual good intention.
   Addison.
   
   1913 Webster
   Syn. -- To have; hold; occupy; control; own.  -- Possess, Have. Have is the more general word. To possess denotes to have as a property. It usually implies more permanence or definiteness of control or ownership than is involved in having. A man does not possess his wife and children: they are (so to speak) part of himself. For the same reason, we have the faculties of reason, understanding, will, sound judgment, etc.: they are exercises of the mind, not possessions.
   1913 Webster