Possessing

1 definition 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.
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