Pos*sess" (?; 277), 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.] 1. To occupy in
person; to hold or actually have in one's own keeping; to have and to hold.
Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
Jer. xxxii. 15.
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
After offense returning, to regain
Love once possessed.
Milton.
2. 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.
I
am yours, and all that
I possess.
Shak. 3. To obtain occupation or possession of; to accomplish; to gain; to seize.
How . . . to possess the purpose they
desired.
Spenser. 4. 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.
Those which were possessed with devils.
Matt.
iv. 24. For ten inspired, ten thousand are possessed.
Roscommon.
5. 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.
I have
possessed your grace of what I purpose.
Shak.
Record a gift . . . of all he dies possessed
Unto his son.
Shak. We possessed our selves of the
kingdom of
Naples.
Addison. To possess our minds with an habitual good intention.
Addison. 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.
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