2. (Law) The having, holding, or detention of property in
one's power or command; actual seizin or occupancy;
ownership, whether rightful or wrongful.
Note: 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.
3. The thing possessed; that which any one occupies, owns, or
controls; in the plural, property in the aggregate;
wealth; dominion; as, foreign possessions.
When the young man heard that saying, he went away
sorrowful, for he had great possessions. --Matt.
xix. 22.
Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.
--Acts v. 1.
The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
--Ob. 17.
4. The state of being possessed or controlled, as by an evil
spirit, or violent passions; madness; frenzy; as,
demoniacal possession.
How long hath this possession held the man? --Shak.
{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.