Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Owning or mastering something. Used with of.
  • adjective Controlled by a spirit, demon, god, or other supernatural force.
  • adjective Controlled by a strong inner drive; obsessed.
  • adjective Calm; collected.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Controlled by some evil spirit or influence; demented; mad.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb Simple past tense and past participle of possess.
  • adjective controlled by evil spirits.
  • adjective Seized by powerful emotions.
  • adjective not comparable Having; owning.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective influenced or controlled by a powerful force such as a strong emotion
  • adjective frenzied as if possessed by a demon

Etymologies

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Examples

  • We don't like to use the word possessed because that means they don't have any power of their own.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • We don't like to use the word possessed because that means they don't have any power of their own.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • We don't like to use the word possessed because that means they don't have any power of their own.

    NPR Topics: News 2011

  • One of the requisite job skills for a head waiter in a high class Austrian restaurant is being intimately familiar with the title possessed by every regular customer, and most occasional customers, of said restaurant.

    Neptunus Lex 2009

  • "Parents have used the word 'possessed,' " says Susan Swedo , chief of pediatrics and developmental neuroscience at the National Institute of Mental Health who first made the connection to strep in the mid-1990s.

    Does Strep Throat Trigger Serious Ills? Melinda Beck 2011

  • The former work of the same title possessed the same kind of merit.

    Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson, Volume 3 Thomas Jefferson 1784

  • A young Winston Churchill wrote his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, about his experiences fighting those tribes, whom he described as possessed of a “wild and merciless fanaticism.”

    The Longest War Peter L. Bergen 2011

  • Sat 10/31/09 11: 42 AM theatre version - katie disappears downstairs, screams for micah, who runs down … there is an obvious struggle .. then silence .. then sounds of heavy footsteps coming back upstairs. micah is thrown into the room very suddenly, then katie walks in possessed, all jerky walking, and then lunges at the camera – goes black.

    'Paranormal Activity': Three super-scary alternate endings (SPOILER ALERT!) | EW.com 2009

  • A young Winston Churchill wrote his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, about his experiences fighting those tribes, whom he described as possessed of a “wild and merciless fanaticism.”

    The Longest War Peter L. Bergen 2011

  • A young Winston Churchill wrote his first book, The Story of the Malakand Field Force, about his experiences fighting those tribes, whom he described as possessed of a “wild and merciless fanaticism.”

    The Longest War Peter L. Bergen 2011

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