The word comitatus is often omitted, and posse alone used. "A whole
posse of enthusiasts." Carlyle.
As if the passion that rules were the sheriff of the place, and
came off with all the posse.
Locke.
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.