[syn: amuck, amok, berserk, demoniac, demoniacal, possessed(p)]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Possess \Pos*sess"\ (?; 277), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Possessed;
p. pr. & vb. n. Possessing.] [L. possessus, p. p. of
possidere to have, possess, from an inseparable prep. (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.
[1913 Webster]
Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed
again in this land. --Jer. xxxii.
15.
[1913 Webster]
Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power,
After offense returning, to regain
Love once possessed. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
I am yours, and all that I possess. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
3. To obtain occupation or possession of; to accomplish; to
gain; to seize.
[1913 Webster]
How . . . to possess the purpose they desired.
--Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
Those which were possessed with devils. --Matt. iv.
24.
[1913 Webster]
For ten inspired, ten thousand are possessed.
--Roscommon.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
I have possessed your grace of what I purpose.
--Shak.
[1913 Webster]
Record a gift . . . of all he dies possessed
Unto his son. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
We possessed our selves of the kingdom of Naples.
--Addison.
[1913 Webster]
To possess our minds with an habitual good
intention. --Addison.
[1913 Webster]
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.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
possessed
adj 1: influenced or controlled by a powerful force such as a
strong emotion; "by love possessed" [syn: obsessed,
possessed(p)]
2: frenzied 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)]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
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