possessverb/pəˈzɛs/

• 1

  To have (something) as, or as if as, an owner; to have, to own.

  • He does not even possess a working telephone.
  • For men being generally poſſeſſed before the time of our Saviour, […] of an opinion, that the Souls of men were ſubſtances diſtinct from their Bodies, and therefore that when the Body was dead, the Soule of every man, whether godly, or wicked, muſt ſubſiſt ſomewhere by vertue of its own nature, without acknowledging therein any ſupernaturall gift of Gods; the Doctors of the Church doubted a long time, what was the place, which they were to abide in, till they ſhould be re-united to their Bodies in the Reſurrection; […]
• 2

  Of an idea, thought, etc.: to dominate (someone's mind); to strongly influence.

  • I am poſſeſt with an adulterate blot, / My bloud is mingled with the crime of luſt: […]
  • This [suspicion of plague] poſſeſs'd the Heads of the People very much, and few car'd to go thro' Drury-Lane, or the other Streets ſuſpected, unleſs they had extraordinary Buſineſs, that obliged them to it.
• 3

  Of a supernatural entity, especially one regarded as evil: to take control of (an animal or person's body or mind).

  • They thought he was possessed by evil spirits.
  • If all the diuels of hell be drawne in little, and Legion himſelfe poſſeſt him, yet Ile ſpeake to him.
• 4

  literaryOf a person: to control or dominate (oneself or someone, or one's own or someone's heart, mind, etc.).

  • Resolving to possess myself in some quiet if it might be, in a time of so great jealosy, I built by my Brother's permission a study, made a fishpond, an island, and some other solitudes and retirements, at Wotton, which gave the first occasion of improving them to those water-works and gardens which afterwards succeeded them.
  • Uneasy persons, who cannot possess their own minds, vent their spleen upon all who depend upon them; […]
• 5

  literaryOf a person: to control or dominate (oneself or someone, or one's own or someone's heart, mind, etc.).

  • Now tell me how long you would haue her, after you haue poſſeſt her?
  • She leads him towards the steps, drawing him by the odour of her armpits, the vice of her painted eyes, the rustle of her slip in whose sinuous folds lurks the lion reek of all the male brutes that have possessed her.
• 6

  archaicTo cause an idea, thought, etc., to strongly affect or influence (someone); to inspire, to preoccupy.

  • What on earth possessed you to go walking by the quarry at midnight?
  • My eares are ſtopt, & cannot hear good newes, / So much of bad already hath poſſeſt them.
• 7

  archaicTo occupy the attention or time of (someone).

  • [W]hen he [Henry Wotton] was beyond ſeventy years of age he made this deſcription of a part of the preſent pleaſure that poſſeſt him, […]
  • [M]y Head quite was turn'd with the Whimſies of foreign Adventures, and all the pleaſant Amuſements of my Farm, and my Garden, my Cattle, and my Family, which before entirely poſſeſt me, were nothing to me, had no Reliſh, and were like Muſick to one that has no Ear, or Food to one that has no Taſte: […]
• 8

  archaicliteraryTo obtain or seize (something); to gain, to win.

  • [T]hey in ſecret counſell cloſe conſpird, / How to effect ſo hard an enterprize, / And to poſſeſſe the purpoſe they deſird: […]
  • [T]here thou maiſt braine him, / Hauing firſt ſeiz'd his bookes: […] Remember / Firſt to poſſeſſe his Bookes; for without them / Hee's but a Sot, as I am; […]