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.
Pos*ses"sion (?), n. [F. possession, L. possessio.] 1. The act or state
of possessing, or holding as one's own.
2. (Law) The having, holding, or detention of property in one's power
or command; actual seizin or occupancy; ownership, whether rightful or
wrongful.
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.