 3 definitions found
From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:
possessed
adjective
1: influenced or controlled by a powerful force such as a
strong emotion; "by love possessed" [syn: {obsessed},
{possessed(p)}]
2: in a murderous frenzy as if possessed by a demon; "the
soldier was completely amuck"; "berserk with grief"; "a
berserk worker smashing windows" [syn: {amuck}, {amok}, {berserk},
{demoniac}, {demoniacal}, {possessed(p)}]
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.44 [gcide]:
Possess \Pos*sess"\ (?; 277), verb (used with an object) [imp. & p. p. {Possessed};
p. pr. & vb. n. {Possessing}.] [L. possessus, p. p. of
possidere to have, possess, from an inseparable preposition (cf.
{Position}) + sedere to sit. See {Sit}.]
1. To occupy in person; to hold or actually have in one's own
keeping; to have and to hold.
Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed
again in this land. --Jer. xxxii.
15.
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
After offense returning, to regain
Love once possessed. --Milton.
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.
I am yours, and all that I possess. --Shak.
3. To obtain occupation or possession of; to accomplish; to
gain; to seize.
How . . . to possess the purpose they desired.
--Spenser.
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.
Those which were possessed with devils. --Matt. iv.
24.
For ten inspired, ten thousand are possessed.
--Roscommon.
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.
I have possessed your grace of what I purpose.
--Shak.
Record a gift . . . of all he dies possessed
Unto his son. --Shak.
We possessed our selves of the kingdom of Naples.
--Addison.
To possess our minds with an habitual good
intention. --Addison.
Syn: To have; hold; occupy; control; own.
Usage: {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.
From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:
126 Moby Thesaurus words for "possessed":
abandoned, amok, bedeviled, bellowing, berserk, besotted,
bewitched, bursting with happiness, by one, carried away,
collected, composed, consumed, controlled, crazed, delirious,
demented, demoniac, demonized, devil-ridden, distracted, dominated,
driven, easy, eaten up, ecstatic, elate, elated, enchanted,
enraptured, enravished, entranced, exalted, exultant, feral,
ferocious, fierce, fixated, flushed, frantic, freaked out,
free and clear, frenzied, fulminating, furious, ghost-haunted,
ghost-ridden, gripped, hag-ridden, haggard, haunted, held, high,
hog-wild, howling, hung-up, hysterical, imparadised,
in a transport, in ecstasies, in fee, in fee simple, in hand,
in heaven, in hysterics, in paradise, in raptures, in seisin,
in seventh heaven, in stock, in store, infatuated, intoxicated,
jubilant, mad, maddened, madding, maniac, monomaniac, monomaniacal,
obsessed, on cloud nine, on hand, orgasmic, orgiastic, overjoyed,
overjoyful, own, owned, pixilated, placid, poised, preoccupied,
prepossessed, pressed, rabid, raging, ramping, ranting, rapt,
raptured, rapturous, raving, ravished, rhapsodic, roaring,
running mad, self-possessed, sent, serene, specter-haunted,
spirit-haunted, spooked, spooky, storming, tranquil, transported,
uncontrollable, violent, wild, wild-eyed, wild-looking,
witch-charmed, witch-held, witch-struck, witched
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