possess
B1Meanings
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1
verb
to have ownership or possession of
I possess a guitar.
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2
verb
to have as an attribute, knowledge, or skill
They possess great knowledge about the Middle East.
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3
verb
to enter into and control, as of emotions or ideas
What possessed you to buy this house?
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4
verb
To have (something) as, or as if as, an owner; to have, to own.
He does not even possess a working telephone.
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5
verb
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: […]
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6
verb
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.
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7
verb
Of 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.
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8
verb
To 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?
Etymology
PIE word *pótis From Middle English possessen (“to have, own; to obtain possession of; to inhabit, occupy”) [and other forms], from Middle French possesser, possessier, Old French possesser, possessier (“to have, own, possess; to dominate”), from Latin possessus (“possessed; seized”), the perfect passive participle of possideō (“to have, hold, own, possess; to have possessions; to take control or possession of, occupy, seize; to abide, inhabit, occupy; to dominate”), from potis (“able, capable, possible”) (from Proto-Indo-European *pótis (“master; ruler; husband”)) + sedeō (“to sit; to be sea…