Category:Possess

Pos*sess", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Possessed; p. pr. & vb. n. Possessing.] Etym: [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. Jeremiah 32:15. 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. Matthew 4:24. 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.