Possessed

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Possess \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.


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

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  possessed
       adj 1: influenced or controlled by a powerful force such as a
              strong emotion; "by love possessed" [syn: {obsessed},
              {possessed(p)}]
       2: in a murderous frenzy as if possessed by a demon; "the
          soldier was completely amuck"; "berserk with grief"; "a
          berserk worker smashing windows" [syn: {amuck}, {amok}, {berserk},
           {demoniac}, {demoniacal}, {possessed(p)}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  126 Moby Thesaurus words for "possessed":
     abandoned, amok, bedeviled, bellowing, berserk, besotted,
     bewitched, bursting with happiness, by one, carried away,
     collected, composed, consumed, controlled, crazed, delirious,
     demented, demoniac, demonized, devil-ridden, distracted, dominated,
     driven, easy, eaten up, ecstatic, elate, elated, enchanted,
     enraptured, enravished, entranced, exalted, exultant, feral,
     ferocious, fierce, fixated, flushed, frantic, freaked out,
     free and clear, frenzied, fulminating, furious, ghost-haunted,
     ghost-ridden, gripped, hag-ridden, haggard, haunted, held, high,
     hog-wild, howling, hung-up, hysterical, imparadised,
     in a transport, in ecstasies, in fee, in fee simple, in hand,
     in heaven, in hysterics, in paradise, in raptures, in seisin,
     in seventh heaven, in stock, in store, infatuated, intoxicated,
     jubilant, mad, maddened, madding, maniac, monomaniac, monomaniacal,
     obsessed, on cloud nine, on hand, orgasmic, orgiastic, overjoyed,
     overjoyful, own, owned, pixilated, placid, poised, preoccupied,
     prepossessed, pressed, rabid, raging, ramping, ranting, rapt,
     raptured, rapturous, raving, ravished, rhapsodic, roaring,
     running mad, self-possessed, sent, serene, specter-haunted,
     spirit-haunted, spooked, spooky, storming, tranquil, transported,
     uncontrollable, violent, wild, wild-eyed, wild-looking,
     witch-charmed, witch-held, witch-struck, witched