possess
Part of speech: verb
Morphological type: simple
Topics: law
Etymology: PIE word
 *pótis
From Middle English possessen (“to have, own; to obtain possession of; to inhabit, occupy”) [and other forms], from Middle French possesser, possessier, Old French possesser, possessier (“to have, own, possess; to dominate”), from Latin possessus (“possessed; seized”), the perfect passive participle of possideō (“to have, hold, own, possess; to have possessions; to take control or possession of, occupy, seize; to abide, inhabit, occupy; to dominate”), from potis (“able, capable, possible”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pótis (“master; ruler; husband”)) + sedeō (“to sit; to be seated; to be established, hold firm”) (ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *sed- (“to sit”)).
Inflected forms:
form: possesses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: possessing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: possessed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: possessed
pos: verb
tags: past
form: no-table-tags
pos: verb
tags: table-tags
form: glossary
pos: verb
tags: inflection-template
form: possess
pos: verb
tags: infinitive
form: possess
pos: verb
tags: first-person
present
singular
form: possessed
pos: verb
tags: first-person
past
singular
form: possess
pos: verb
tags: present
second-person
singular
form: possessest
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
second-person
singular
form: possessed
pos: verb
tags: past
second-person
singular
form: possessedst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
past
second-person
singular
form: possesses
pos: verb
tags: present
singular
third-person
form: possesseth
pos: verb
tags: archaic
present
singular
third-person
form: possessed
pos: verb
tags: past
singular
third-person
form: possess
pos: verb
tags: plural
present
form: possessed
pos: verb
tags: past
plural
form: possess
pos: verb
tags: present
subjunctive
form: possessed
pos: verb
tags: past
subjunctive
form: possess
pos: verb
tags: imperative
present
form: -
pos: verb
tags: imperative
past
form: possessing
pos: verb
tags: participle
present
form: possessed
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: possest
pos: verb
tags: participle
past
form: possesst
pos: verb
tags: archaic
participle
past
Senses:
gloss: To have (something) as, or as if as, an owner; to have, to own.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: He does not even possess a working telephone.
For men being generally poſſeſſed before the time of our Saviour, […] of an opinion, that the Souls of men were ſubſtances diſtinct from their Bodies, and therefore that when the Body was dead, the Soule of every man, whether godly, or wicked, muſt ſubſiſt ſomewhere by vertue of its own nature, without acknowledging therein any ſupernaturall gift of Gods; the Doctors of the Church doubted a long time, what was the place, which they were to abide in, till they ſhould be re-united to their Bodies in the Reſurrection; […]
Even where the affections are not strongly moved by any superior excellence, the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds, which hardly any later friend can obtain.
[T]he ship turned and made slowly for her wharf under the wall, bringing even more fairly to view the life with which the river at that point was possessed.
He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.
Here the line is joined by the Colne Valley branch, and both tracks are carried into Haverhill station upon a high embankment from which the town can be seen on the south side. The twin tracks, after traversing a scissors crossover, become the down and up roads through the station, which possesses an extensive goods yard.
gloss: Of an idea, thought, etc.: to dominate (someone's mind); to strongly influence.
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: I am poſſeſt with an adulterate blot, / My bloud is mingled with the crime of luſt: […]
This [suspicion of plague] poſſeſs'd the Heads of the People very much, and few car'd to go thro' Drury-Lane, or the other Streets ſuſpected, unleſs they had extraordinary Buſineſs, that obliged them to it.
A horrid mistrust of the whole house possessed me. I saw it in the light of a deadly trap.
I saw that turbulent emotions possessed her, so I asked what I thought would be some sedative questions about her little girl.
gloss: Of a supernatural entity, especially one regarded as evil: to take control of (an animal or person's body or mind).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
examples: They thought he was possessed by evil spirits.
If all the diuels of hell be drawne in little, and Legion himſelfe poſſeſt him, yet Ile ſpeake to him.
I ſtand centinell perdu, and ſomebody dyes if I ſleepe, I am poſſeſt with the diuell and cannot ſleepe.
[I]t is manifeſt, that whoſoever behaved himſelfe in extraordinory manner, was thought by the Jewes to be poſſeſſed either with a good, or evill ſpirit; […]
But I am now talking of a Set of People who were not poſſeſs'd BY, but rather, as it may be called, are poſſeſs'd OF the Devil; […]
Had I lived in the Middle Ages I am certain I would have believed that a talking bird must be possessed by the devil.
But when an older man approaches her to pay his respects, something unusual happens. He begins shaking violently, stroking an invisible beard and laughing out loud.
Security camera footage shows the man running into the temple, leaving behind his shoes. Worshippers say that the man may have been possessed by the God of the Earth, who is often portrayed with a long beard. Some say that the god was using the old man to welcome Matsu.
"He's been waiting to jump my brain-bones since I left R&E. I could feel him hammering on the door." She trotted to the nearest wall and knocked on it for emphasis. "But whatever it is that makes us remember the good old days, it also makes us impossible to possess now. That's why Willie and I both woke up, and why Noè never got taken out by Mukami. So all I had to do was open my mind up to the guy, invite him in, then... gas the foyer, as it were."
gloss: Of a person: to control or dominate (oneself or someone, or one's own or someone's heart, mind, etc.).
pos: verb
tags: also
literary
poetic
reflexive
transitive
examples: Resolving to possess myself in some quiet if it might be, in a time of so great jealosy, I built by my Brother's permission a study, made a fishpond, an island, and some other solitudes and retirements, at Wotton, which gave the first occasion of improving them to those water-works and gardens which afterwards succeeded them.
Uneasy persons, who cannot possess their own minds, vent their spleen upon all who depend upon them; […]
Take me—mould me to your will, possess my heart and soul to all eternity.
I tried to possess my soul in patience, and to forget how hungry I was.
gloss: Of a person: to control or dominate (oneself or someone, or one's own or someone's heart, mind, etc.).
pos: verb
tags: also
literary
poetic
reflexive
transitive
examples: Now tell me how long you would haue her, after you haue poſſeſt her?
She leads him towards the steps, drawing him by the odour of her armpits, the vice of her painted eyes, the rustle of her slip in whose sinuous folds lurks the lion reek of all the male brutes that have possessed her.
gloss: To cause an idea, thought, etc., to strongly affect or influence (someone); to inspire, to preoccupy.
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: What on earth possessed you to go walking by the quarry at midnight?
My eares are ſtopt, & cannot hear good newes, / So much of bad already hath poſſeſt them.
Heare is obſerued that in all cauſes the firſt tale poſſeſſeth much, in ſorte, that the preiudice, thereby wrought wil bee hardly remooued, excepte ſome abuſe or falſitie in the Information be detected.
What a ſtrange drowſines poſſeſſes them?
Thus hath he deluded many Nations in his Auguriall and Extiſpicious inventions, from caſuall and uncontrived contingences divining events ſucceeding. Which Tuſcan ſuperſtition ſeaſing upon Rome hath ſince poſſeſſed all Europe.
He [Envy] neither regardeth Prince nor People, Law nor Cuſtom: but doth all that he can to poſſeſs all men with certain of his diſloyal notions, which he in the general calls Principles of Faith and Holineſs.
At ev'ry ſtroke wit flaſhes in our eyes, / The turns are quick, the poliſh'd points ſurpriſe, / But ſhine with cruel and tremendous charms, / That while they pleaſe poſſeſs us with alarms: […]
Some male or female flatterer had, in evil hour, possessed him with the idea that there was much beauty of contour in a pair of huge substantial legs, which he had derived from his father, a car-man of Limoges; […]
gloss: To occupy the attention or time of (someone).
pos: verb
tags: archaic
transitive
examples: [W]hen he [Henry Wotton] was beyond ſeventy years of age he made this deſcription of a part of the preſent pleaſure that poſſeſt him, […]
[M]y Head quite was turn'd with the Whimſies of foreign Adventures, and all the pleaſant Amuſements of my Farm, and my Garden, my Cattle, and my Family, which before entirely poſſeſt me, were nothing to me, had no Reliſh, and were like Muſick to one that has no Ear, or Food to one that has no Taſte: […]
gloss: To obtain or seize (something); to gain, to win.
pos: verb
tags: also
archaic
literary
transitive
examples: [T]hey in ſecret counſell cloſe conſpird, / How to effect ſo hard an enterprize, / And to poſſeſſe the purpoſe they deſird: […]
[T]here thou maiſt braine him, / Hauing firſt ſeiz'd his bookes: […] Remember / Firſt to poſſeſſe his Bookes; for without them / Hee's but a Sot, as I am; […]
gloss: Chiefly followed by of or with: to vest ownership of something in (oneself or someone); to bestow upon, to endow.
pos: verb
tags: also
archaic
reflexive
transitive
examples: Lvcius Tarquinius (for his exceſſive pride ſurnamed Superbus) after hee had cauſed his owne father in law Seruius Tullius to be cruelly murdred, and contrarie to the Romaine lawes and cuſtomes, not requiring or ſtaying for the peoples ſuffrages, had poſſeſſed himſelfe of the kingdome: […]
And for theſe great affaires do aske ſome charge, / Tovvards our aſsiſtance vve doe ſeaze to vs: / The Plate, coine, reuenevves, and moueables / VVhereof our Vnckle Gaunt did ſtand poſſeſt.
I will poſſeſſe you of that ſhip and Treaſure.
VVhen in diſgrace with Fortune and mens eyes, / I all alone bevveepe my out-caſt ſtate, / […] / VViſhing me like to one more rich in hope, Featur'd like him, like him with friends poſſeſt, / […] / For thy ſweet loue remembred ſuch vvelth brings, / That then I skorne to change my ſtate with Kings.
The end then of learning is to repair the ruins of our firſt parents by regaining to knovv God aright, and out of that knovvledge to love him, to imitate him, to be like him, as vve may the neereſt by poſſeſſing our ſouls of true vertue, vvhich being united to the heavenly grace of faith makes up the higheſt perfection.
[H]e, the hoſts between, / With warlike Menelaus ſhall in fight / Contend for Helen, and for all her wealth. / Who ſtrongest proves, and conquers, he, of her / And her's poſſeſt, ſhall bear them ſafe away, / And oaths of amity ſhall bind the reſt.
A peep at Wolf Larsen showed me that he had not moved. A bright thought struck me. I stole into his state-room and possessed myself of his revolvers.
gloss: To have control or possession of, but not to own (a chattel or an interest in land).
pos: verb
tags: transitive
gloss: To give (someone) information or knowledge; to acquaint, to inform.
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: I cannot bid you bid my daughter liue, / That were impoſſible, but I pray you both, / Poſſeſs the people in Meſſina here, / How innocent ſhe died, […]
To[by Belch]. Poſſeſſe vs, poſſeſſe vs, tell vs ſomething of him. / Mar[ia]. Marrie ſir, ſometimes he is a kinde of Puritane.
The Pagan in ſhort told him, if hee had any more to poſſeſſe the King he ſhould firſt acquaint him, and conſequently haue an anſwer, to which our Ambaſſadour replyed little, tho diſcontented much, perceiuing by this, he ſhould haue no further acceſſe vnto the King, […]
gloss: To have the ability to use, or knowledge of (a language, a skill, etc.)
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: And Mr. Holt found that Harry could read and write, and poſſeſſed the two languages of French and Engliſh very well, […]
gloss: To inhabit or occupy (a place).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: [W]ell thou knowſt / God hath pronounc't it death to taſte that Tree, / The only ſign of our obedience left / Among ſo many ſignes of power and rule / Conferrd upon us, and Dominion giv'n / Over all other Creatures that poſſeſſe Earth, Aire, and Sea.
Wherefore getting out again, on that ſide next to his own Houſe; he [Pliable] told me, I ſhould poſſeſs the brave Countrey alone for him: ſo he went his way, and I came mine.
[W]e are not willing to let any other Nation ſettle there, becauſe we would not let them ſee how weak we are, and what a vaſt Extent of Land we poſſeſs there with a few Men: […]
When those bells / Possessed the mid-day air, / Strove not her steps to reach my side / Down all the echoing stair?
gloss: Chiefly followed by that: to convince or persuade (someone).
pos: verb
tags: obsolete
transitive
examples: By ſuch malicious Inſinuations, he had poſſeſs'd the Lady, that he was the only Man in the World, of a ſound, pure, and untainted Conſtitution: […]
gloss: To dominate sexually; to have sexual intercourse with.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
gloss: To inhabit or occupy a place.
pos: verb
tags: intransitive
examples: Doſt thou thinke in time / She will not quench, and let inſtructions enter / Where Folly now poſſeſſes?
Synonyms: have
hold
own
possess
Antonyms: go without
lose
Related words: dispossess
dispossessed
dispossessee
dispossession
dispossessive
dispossessor
dispossessory
possession
possessional
possessionary
possessionate
possessioned
possessioner
possessionist
possessionistic
possessionless
possessival
possessive
possessively
possessiveness
possessor
possessoress
possessorial
possessorship
possessory
unpossessable
unpossessive
property
Derived words: adversely possess
mispossess
possessable
possessible
possessed
possessee
possessing
possessingly
prepossessing
repossess
unpossess
unpossessed
unpossessing
Translations: