A cat . . . possed them [ the rats ] about. Piers Plowman. [ 1913 Webster ]

In posse. See In posse in the Vocabulary. [ 1913 Webster ]

1. (Law) The power of the county, or the citizens who may be summoned by the sheriff to assist the authorities in suppressing a riot, or executing any legal precept which is forcibly opposed. Blackstone. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A collection of people; a throng; a rabble. [ Colloq. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ The word comitatus is often omitted, and posse alone used. “A whole posse of enthusiasts.” Carlyle. [ 1913 Webster ]

As if the passion that rules were the sheriff of the place, and came off with all the posse. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. Jer. xxxii. 15. [ 1913 Webster ]

Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
After offense returning, to regain
Love once possessed. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To have the legal title to; to have a just right to; to be master of; to own; to have; as, to possess property, an estate, a book. [ 1913 Webster ]

I am yours, and all that I possess. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. To obtain occupation or possession of; to accomplish; to gain; to seize. [ 1913 Webster ]

How . . . to possess the purpose they desired. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. To enter into and influence; to control the will of; to fill; to affect; -- said especially of evil spirits, passions, etc. “Weakness possesseth me.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Those which were possessed with devils. Matt. iv. 24. [ 1913 Webster ]

For ten inspired, ten thousand are possessed. Roscommon. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. To put in possession; to make the owner or holder of property, power, knowledge, etc.; to acquaint; to inform; -- followed by of or with before the thing possessed, and now commonly used reflexively. [ 1913 Webster ]

I have possessed your grace of what I purpose. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

Record a gift . . . of all he dies possessed
Unto his son. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

We possessed our selves of the kingdom of Naples. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

To possess our minds with an habitual good intention. Addison. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- To have; hold; occupy; control; own. -- Possess, Have. Have is the more general word. To possess denotes to have as a property. It usually implies more permanence or definiteness of control or ownership than is involved in having. A man does not possess his wife and children: they are (so to speak) part of himself. For the same reason, we have the faculties of reason, understanding, will, sound judgment, etc.: they are exercises of the mind, not possessions. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. (Law) The having, holding, or detention of property in one's power or command; actual seizin or occupancy; ownership, whether rightful or wrongful. [ 1913 Webster ]

☞ 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. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The thing possessed; that which any one occupies, owns, or controls; in the plural, property in the aggregate; wealth; dominion; as, foreign possessions. [ 1913 Webster ]

When the young man heard that saying, he went away sorrowful, for he had great possessions. Matt. xix. 22. [ 1913 Webster ]

Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession. Acts v. 1. [ 1913 Webster ]

The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions. Ob. 17. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. The state of being possessed or controlled, as by an evil spirit, or violent passions; madness; frenzy; as, demoniacal possession. [ 1913 Webster ]

How long hath this possession held the man? Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

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. [ 1913 Webster ]

Having been of old freemen and possessioners. Sir P. Sidney. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. An invidious name for a member of any religious community endowed with property in lands, buildings, etc., as contrasted with mendicant friars. [ Obs. ] Wyclif. [ 1913 Webster ]

Possessive case (Eng. Gram.), the genitive case; the case of nouns and pronouns which expresses ownership, origin, or some possessive relation of one thing to another; as, Homer's admirers; the pear's flavor; the dog's faithfulness. --
Possessive pronoun, a pronoun denoting ownership; as, his name; her home; my book. [ 1913 Webster ]