The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:

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