Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Possession?

\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. Note: 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.
\Pos*ses"sion\, v. t. To invest with property. [Obs.]