Possession

• POS: Noun
• HYPHEN: pos=ses=sion

CIDE DICTIONARY

Possession, n. [F. possession, L. possessio.].

•  The act or state of possessing, or holding as one's own.  [1913 Webster]
•  The having, holding, or detention of property in one's power or command; actual seizin or occupancy; ownership, whether rightful or wrongful.  [1913 Webster]

  " 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."  [1913 Webster]
•  The thing possessed; that which any one occupies, owns, or controls; in the plural, property in the aggregate; wealth; dominion; as, foreign possessions.  [1913 Webster]

  "When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions."  [1913 Webster]

  "Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession."  [1913 Webster]

  "The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions."  [1913 Webster]
•  The state of being possessed or controlled, as by an evil spirit, or violent passions; madness; frenzy; as, demoniacal possession.  [1913 Webster]

  "How long hath this possession held the man?"  [1913 Webster]

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.

Possession, v. t. 

 To invest with property.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

Possession, n.
1 the act or state of possessing or being possessed.
2 the thing possessed.
3 the act or state of actual holding or occupancy.
4 Law power or control similar to lawful ownership but which may exist separately from it (prosecuted for possession of narcotic drugs).
5 (in pl.) property, wealth, subject territory, etc.
6 Football etc. temporary control of the ball by a particular player.

Idiom

in possession
1 (of a person) possessing.
2 (of a thing) possessed. in possession of 1 having in one's possession.
2 maintaining control over (in possession of one's wits). in the possession of held or owned by. possession order an order made by a court directing that possession of a property be given to the owner. take possession (often foll. by of) become the owner or possessor (of a thing).

Derivative

possessionless adj.

Etymology

ME f. OF possession or L possessio -onis (as POSSESS)

THESAURUS

Possession

aberration, abnormality, accessories, acquest, acquire, acquisition, affluence, alienation, ally, aplomb, appointments, appurtenances, archduchy, archdukedom, assets, assurance, baggage, balance, bedevilment, belongings, bewitchery, bewitchment, body politic, bottomless purse, brain damage, brainsickness, buffer state, bulging purse, captivation, captive nation, capture, care, chattels, chieftaincy, chieftainry, city-state, claiming, clouded mind, colony, commonweal, commonwealth, complex, composure, compulsion, confidence, conquer, constraint, control, country, county, craziness, custody, daftness, dementedness, dementia, derangement, discipline, disorientation, distraction, domain, dominion, duchy, duds, dukedom, earldom, easy circumstances, effects, embarras de richesses, empery, empire, enchantment, entrancement, equability, equanimity, equilibrium, equipment, estate and effects, fascination, fixation, fixed idea, fixtures, folie, fortune, free city, furnishings, furniture, furor, gold, goods, grand duchy, guardianship, handsome fortune, hang-up, havings, hereditament, high income, high tax bracket, hold, holding, holdings, hypercathexis, idee fixe, illusion, impedimenta, incorporeal hereditament, independence, insaneness, insanity, irrationality, irresistible impulse, keeping, kingdom, land, lares and penates, level head, levelheadedness, loss of mind, loss of reason, lucre, lunacy, luxuriousness, madness, mammon, mandant, mandate, mandated territory, mandatee, mandatory, mania, material wealth, maya, mental deficiency, mental derangement, mental disease, mental disorder, mental disturbance, mental illness, mental instability, mental sickness, mind overthrown, mindsickness, money, money to burn, moneybags, monomania, morbid drive, movables, nation, nationality, obsession, obsessive compulsion, obtain, occupy, oddness, opulence, opulency, ownership, paraphernalia, pelf, pixilation, poise, polis, polity, possessions, possessorship, power, preoccupation, prepossession, presence of mind, principality, principate, properties, property, proprietary, proprietorship, prosperity, prosperousness, protection, protectorate, province, puppet government, puppet regime, queerness, rabidness, realm, reasonlessness, reception, repossess, republic, restraint, riches, richness, ruling passion, satellite, secure, seize, self-assurance, self-command, self-confidence, self-conquest, self-control, self-denial, self-discipline, self-government, self-mastery, self-possession, self-restraint, seneschalty, senselessness, settlement, shattered mind, sick mind, sickness, six-figure income, sovereign nation, spirit control, state, strangeness, substance, sultanate, superpower, take, taking, taking away, taking possession, tangibles, tenure, territory, theft, things, tic, title, toparchia, toparchy, trappings, treasure, tricks, unbalance, unbalanced mind, unsaneness, unsound mind, unsoundness, unsoundness of mind, upper bracket, wealth, wealthiness, well-regulated mind, win, witchery, witlessness

ROGET THESAURUS

Possession

Possession

N possession, seizin, seisin, ownership, occupancy, hold, holding, tenure, tenancy, feodality, dependency, villenage, villeinage, socage, chivalry, knight service, exclusive possession, impropriation, monopoly, retention, prepossession, preoccupancy, nine points of the law, corner, usucaption, future possession, heritage, inheritance, heirship, reversion, fee, seigniority, primogeniture, ultimogeniture, futures contract, warrant, put, call, option, right of first refusal, bird in hand, uti possidetis, chose in possession, possessing, worth, possessed of, seized of, master of, in possession of, usucapient, endowed with, blest with, instinct with, fraught with, laden with, charged with, possessed, on hand, by one, in hand, in store, in stock, in one's hands, in one's grasp, in one's possession, at one's command, at one's disposal, one's own, unsold, unshared, entbehre gern was du nicht hast, meum et tuum, tuum est.

Property

N property, possession, suum cuique, meum et tuum, ownership, proprietorship, lordship, seignority, empire, interest, stake, estate, right, title, claim, demand, holding, tenure, vested interest, contingent interest, beneficial interest, equitable interest, use, trust, benefit, legal estate, equitable estate, seizin, seisin, absolute interest, paramount estate, freehold, fee tail, fee simple, estate in fee, estate in tail, estate tail, estate in tail male, estate in tail female, estate in tail general, limitation, term, lease, settlement, strict settlement, particular estate, estate for life, estate for years, estate pur autre vie, remainder, reversion, expectancy, possibility, dower, dowry, jointure, appanage, inheritance, heritage, patrimony, alimony, legacy, Falcidian law, paternal estate, thirds, assets, belongings, means, resources, circumstances, wealth, money, what one is worth, what one will cut up for, estate and effects, landed property, landed real estate property, realty, land, lands, tenements, hereditaments, corporeal hereditaments, incorporeal hereditaments, acres, ground, acquest, messuage, toft, territory, state, kingdom, principality, realm, empire, protectorate, sphere of influence, manor, honor, domain, demesne, farm, plantation, hacienda, allodium, fief, fieff, feoff, feud, zemindary, dependency, arado, merestead, ranch, free lease-holds, copy lease-holds, folkland, chattels real, fixtures, plant, heirloom, easement, right of common, right of user, personal property, personal estate, personal effects, personalty, chattels, goods, effects, movables, stock, stock in trade, things, traps, rattletraps, paraphernalia, equipage, parcels, appurtenances, impedimenta, luggage, baggage, bag and baggage, pelf, cargo, lading, rent roll, income, maul and wedges, patent, copyright, chose in action, credit, debt, one's own, landed, predial, manorial, allodial, free lease-hold, copy lease-hold, feudal, feodal, to one's credit, to one's account, to the good, to one and his heirs for ever, to one and the heirs of his body, to one and his heirs and assigns, to one and his executors administrators and assign.

Demon

N demon, daemon, demonry, demonology, evil genius, fiend, familiar, daeva, devil, bad spirit, unclean spirit, cacodemon, incubus, Eblis, shaitan, succubus, succuba, Frankenstein's monster, Titan, Shedim, Mephistopheles, Asmodeus, Moloch, Belial, Ahriman, fury, harpy, Friar Rush, vampire, ghoul, afreet, barghest, Loki, ogre, ogress, gnome, gin, jinn, imp, deev, lamia, bogie, bogeyman, bogle, nis, kobold, flibbertigibbet, fairy, brownie, pixy, elf, dwarf, urchin, Puck, Robin Goodfellow, leprechaun, Cluricaune, troll, dwerger, sprite, ouphe, bad fairy, nix, nixie, pigwidgeon, will-o'-the wisp, ghost, revenant, specter, apparition, spirit, shade, shadow, vision, hobglobin, goblin, orc, wraith, spook, boggart, banshee, loup-garou, lemures, evil eye, merman, mermaid, merfolk, siren, satyr, faun, manito, manitou, manitu, possession, demonic possession, diabolic possession, insanity, Maxwell's demon, demoniac, demonic, demonical, impish, demoniacal, fiendish, fiend-like, supernatural, weird, uncanny, unearthly, spectral, ghostly, ghost-like, elfin, elvin, elfish, elflike, haunted, pokerish, possessed, possessed by a devil, possessed by a demon, demonically.