Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A group of civilians called upon by a sheriff or other law enforcement official to assist temporarily in preserving the peace or pursuing and arresting a fugitive.
- noun A search party.
- noun A gang involved in crimes such as running guns and illegal narcotics trafficking.
- noun Slang A group of friends or associates.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Possibility.
- noun A sheriff's posse comitatus (see below); in general, a body or squad of men.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun See
posse comitatus . - noun See
In posse in the Vocabulary.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun US A group of people summoned to help law enforcement
- noun US A search party
- noun US, Jamaica A
criminal gang - noun by extension A group of associates
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a temporary police force
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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_a posse ad esse non valet consequentia_, you can draw no inference from the possibility of a thing to its reality, but that, in the reverse order, _ab esse ad posse_, the inference is inevitable: if it is, or if it ever has been -- then of necessity it can be.
Theological Essays and Other Papers — Volume 1 Thomas De Quincey 1822
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ROBERTS: You've got 160deputies trained to enforce immigration laws but you have what you call a posse of another 300,000 you can draw upon, about 500 of whom carry weapons.
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Your poor husband ..... probably feels like a posse is after him.
I Can't Seem to Stop.... Jessica 2006
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Wade's posse is one of dozens sent to top-tier universities each year by the New York-based Posse Foundation.
Students 2010
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The delusionary conduct of Mrs. Clinton and her posse is really disturbing, because it could lead to a third term of George Bush, and, if that were to happen, we would not have a country to which we could be patriotic.
Full Michigan delegation with half-vote to be seated by Dems 2008
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Oil will remain high until at least January 2009 when the Bush posse is removed from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Ruby
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Dressed as the werewolf Remus Lupin, Mr. Oosting says he feels very close to his posse from the Netherlands.
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Dressed as the werewolf Remus Lupin, Mr. Oosting says he feels very close to his posse from the Netherlands.
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But dude .. matching striped polos for you and your posse is way Montgomery Bell Academy.
Archive 2005-04-01 2005
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Ariana caought the last train leaving that station and, frankly, her posse is no more readable than Kos.
Maybe Pajamas Media wasn’t such a bad name afterall « BuzzMachine 2005
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This is often also referred to as the acronym POSSE, for publish on your own site and syndicate everywhere.
Zachary Proser - Open-source hacker, writer, and life-long learner 2023
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And Pierce went the other way, advocating for what’s called POSSE, or “Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Everywhere,” where everything you’re doing online is collected on a personal website, regardless of how hideous and unreadable (I personally think) that looks.
Your guide to the guides for fixing the internet Ryan Broderick 2023
edwardvielmetti commented on the word posse
Andre the Giant has a posse.
Charles Darwin has a posse.
hypermodernism has a posse - Leslie Harpold.
October 6, 2007