dispossess

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to deprive a person or community of land, a home, or other property, especially by force or legal action

   The decree threatened to dispossess hundreds of families from their farms.

2. 2
   verb

   to deprive someone of the possession or control of something more generally

   His rivals tried to dispossess him of the authority he had inherited.

3. 3
   verb

   in sport, to take the ball or puck away from an opponent

   The defender dispossessed the striker just outside the penalty area.

From Old French despossesser ("to put out of possession"), built from des- (a privative prefix) + possesser ("to possess"). English later regularized the prefix to dis-. Possess ultimately comes from Latin possidere ("to have and hold"), originally a legal term associated with property.

Topics

External links

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• Cambridge Dictionary
• Wiktionary