POSSESSION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does possession mean? 

• POSSESSION (noun)
  The noun POSSESSION has 7 senses:

1. the act of having and controlling property

2. anything owned or possessed

3. being controlled by passion or the supernatural

4. a mania restricted to one thing or idea

5. a territory that is controlled by a ruling state

6. the trait of resolutely controlling your own behavior

7. (sport) the act of controlling the ball (or puck)

  Familiarity information: POSSESSION used as a noun is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• POSSESSION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The act of having and controlling property

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

ownership; possession

Hypernyms ("possession" is a kind of...):

control (the activity of managing or exerting control over something)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "possession"):

criminal possession ((law) possession for which criminal sanctions are provided because the property may not lawfully be possessed or may not be possessed under certain circumstances)

holding; keeping; retention (the act of retaining something)

constructive possession ((law) having the power and intention to have and control property but without direct control or actual presence upon it)

actual possession ((law) immediate and direct physical control over property)

Derivation:

possess (have ownership or possession of)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Anything owned or possessed

Classified under:

Nouns with no superordinates

Hypernyms ("possession" is a kind of...):

relation (an abstraction belonging to or characteristic of two entities or parts together)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "possession"):

white elephant (a valuable possession whose upkeep is excessively expensive)

transferred possession; transferred property (a possession whose ownership changes or lapses)

circumstances (a person's financial situation (good or bad))

assets (anything of material value or usefulness that is owned by a person or company)

treasure (any possession that is highly valued by its owner)

liabilities (anything that is owed to someone else)

belongings; holding; property (something owned; any tangible or intangible possession that is owned by someone)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Being controlled by passion or the supernatural

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Hypernyms ("possession" is a kind of...):

enchantment; spell; trance (a psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A mania restricted to one thing or idea

Classified under:

Nouns denoting goals

Synonyms:

monomania; possession

Hypernyms ("possession" is a kind of...):

cacoethes; mania; passion (an irrational but irresistible motive for a belief or action)

Sense 5

Meaning:

A territory that is controlled by a ruling state

Classified under:

Nouns denoting spatial position

Hypernyms ("possession" is a kind of...):

district; dominion; territorial dominion; territory (a region marked off for administrative or other purposes)

Instance hyponyms:

Macao; Macau (a former Portuguese province on the south coast of China and two islands in the South China Sea; reverted to China in 1999)

British Virgin Islands (more than 40 northeastern Virgin Islands (15 inhabited); a dependent territory of the United Kingdom)

American Virgin Islands; United States Virgin Islands; VI (more than 130 southeastern Virgin Islands; a dependent territory of the United States)

Gilbert and Ellice Islands (a former British possession in Micronesia)

Faeroe Islands; Faeroes; Faroe Islands; Faroes (a self-governing colony that is a possession of Denmark in the Faroe Islands)

French Oceania; French Polynesia (a French overseas possession in the South Pacific)

Sense 6

Meaning:

The trait of resolutely controlling your own behavior

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

possession; self-command; self-control; self-possession; self-will; will power; willpower

Hypernyms ("possession" is a kind of...):

firmness; firmness of purpose; resoluteness; resolution; resolve (the trait of being resolute)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "possession"):

nerves (control of your emotions)

presence of mind (self-control in a crisis; ability to say or do the right thing in an emergency)

Sense 7

Meaning:

(sport) the act of controlling the ball (or puck)

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Context example:

they took possession of the ball on their own goal line

Hypernyms ("possession" is a kind of...):

control (the activity of managing or exerting control over something)

Domain category:

athletics; sport (an active diversion requiring physical exertion and competition)

 Context examples 

You wrote to me about a bust that is in my possession.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The present Mr. Rochester has not been very long in possession of the property; only about nine years.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He handed over the one which he had already described as part of the dead man's possessions.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I never beheld anything approaching to Miss Mowcher's wink except Miss Mowcher's self-possession.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Why was some one so anxious to get possession of it?

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

By the time we had gone through all the possessions, Mercury was retrograde, and I did not want to sell at that time.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Scarcely had they worked themselves into the quiet possession of a place, however, when her attention was claimed by John Thorpe, who stood behind her.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

Thirteen years had seen her mistress of Kellynch Hall, presiding and directing with a self-possession and decision which could never have given the idea of her being younger than she was.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

Everything was settled, and he would enter into possession next day.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

The reason of this assertion was, that he had now in his possession a certain wonderful Yahoo (meaning myself) which most of them had heard of, and many of them had seen.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)