Category:Possession

Pos*ses"sion, n. Etym: [f. possession, l. possessio.]

1. The act or state of possessing, or holding as one's own.

2. (law)

Defn: the having, holding, or detention of property in one's power or Command; actual seizin or occupancy; ownership, whether rightful or Wrongful.

Note: possession may be either actual or constructive; actual, when a Party has the immediate occupancy; constructive, when he has only the Right to such occupancy.

3. The thing possessed; that which any one occupies, owns, or Controls; in the plural, property in the aggregate; wealth; dominion; As, foreign possessions. When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he Had great possessions. Matt. xix. 22. Ananias, with sapphira his wife, sold a possession. Acts v. 1. The house of jacob shall possess their possessions. Ob. 17.

4. The state of being possessed or controlled, as by an evil spirit, Or violent passions; madness; frenzy; as, demoniacal possession. How long hath this possession held the man shak. To give possession, to put in another's power or occupancy. -- to put in possession. (a) to invest with ownership or occupancy; To provide or furnish with; as, to put one in possession of facts or Information. (b) (law) to place one in charge of property recovered In ejectment or writ of entry. -- to take possession, to enter upon, or to bring within one's power Or occupancy. -- writ of possession (law), a precept directing a sheriff to put a Person in peaceable possession of property recovered in ejectment or Writ of entry.

Possession Pos*ses"sion, v. t.

Defn: to invest with property. [obs.]