possession
English
[edit]
Etymology
[edit]From Latin possessiō, possessiōnis.
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]possession (countable and uncountable, plural possessions)
- Control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.
- Hyponym: mortmain
- 2020 April 8, Paul Stephen, “ECML dive-under drives divergence”, in Rail, page 44:
- Once complete, guide rails will be installed inside the tunnels ready for the box jack itself - which NR intends to push into place during a nine-day engineering possession in September, following a trial push in late August. [...] A small number of weekday and weekend possessions will also be required on June 20-21, September 5-6, and between December 19-March 2021, [...]
- Something that is owned.
- Synonyms: (obsolete) ight; see also Thesaurus:property
- The car quickly became his most prized possession.
- I would gladly give all of my worldly possessions just to be able to do that.
- Ownership; taking, holding, keeping something as one's own.
- Synonyms: owndom, retention; see also Thesaurus:ownership
- Antonym: absence
- The car is in my possession.
- I'm in possession of the car.
- A territory under the rule of another country.
- Réunion is the largest of France's overseas possessions.
- The condition or affliction of being possessed by a demon or other supernatural entity.
- Synonym: (obsolete) enthusiasm
- Back then, people with psychiatric disorders were sometimes thought to be victims of demonic possession.
- c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act V, scene i]:
- How long hath this possession held the man?
- The condition of being under the control of strong emotion or madness.
- (sports) Control of the ball; the opportunity to be on the offensive.
- The scoreboard shows a little football symbol next to the name of the team that has possession.
- 2010 December 29, Chris Whyatt, “Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton”, in BBC[1]:
- Their first half was marred by the entire side playing too deep, completely unable to build up any form of decent possession once the ball left their bewildered defence.
- (Australian rules football) A disposal of the ball during a game, i.e. a kick or a handball.
- 2019 In the mix: Who's pushing for selection for round eight? Australian Football League, 7 May 2019. Accessed 7 May 2019.
- Defender Colin O'Riordan had 41 possessions in the NEAFL last week to continue his outstanding form, while Ryan Clarke had 47 in the Swans' big loss to Brisbane.
- 2019 In the mix: Who's pushing for selection for round eight? Australian Football League, 7 May 2019. Accessed 7 May 2019.
- (linguistics) A syntactic relationship between two nouns or nominals that may be used to indicate ownership.
- Some languages distinguish between a construction like 'my car', which shows alienable possession — the car could become someone else's — and one like 'my foot', which has inalienable possession — my foot will always be mine.
Usage notes
[edit]- One who possesses is often said to have possession (of), hold possession (of), or be in possession (of).
- One who acquires is often said to take possession (of), gain possession (of), or come into possession (of).
Derived terms
[edit]- adverse possession
- catch in possession
- debtor in possession
- fee simple absolute in possession
- hostile possession
- possessional
- possession arrow
- possessionary
- possessioner
- Possession Island
- possessionism
- possession is nine points of the law
- possession is nine-tenths of the law
- possessionist
- possessionless
- possession of interest
- possession with intent to supply
- self-possession
- take possession
Translations
[edit]control or occupancy without legal ownership
|
something that is owned
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ownership; taking, holding, keeping something as one's own
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a territory under the rule of another country
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the state of being possessed by a spirit or demon
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control of the ball in a disputed sports game
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- The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked
Verb
[edit]possession (third-person singular simple present possessions, present participle possessioning, simple past and past participle possessioned)
References
[edit]- ^ “possession”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
French
[edit]Etymology
[edit]From Latin possessionem (nominative of possessio).
Pronunciation
[edit]Noun
[edit]possession f (plural possessions)
Derived terms
[edit]Further reading
[edit]- “possession”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.
Categories:
- English terms derived from Latin
- English 3-syllable words
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- Rhymes:English/ɛʃən
- Rhymes:English/ɛʃən/3 syllables
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English uncountable nouns
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- en:Sports
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- French terms derived from Latin
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- French terms with audio pronunciation
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