Acquire vs Possess - What's the difference?
acquire | possess |
To get.
To gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own, as, to acquire a title, riches, knowledge, skill, good or bad habits.
* (Isaac Barrow) (1630-1677)
* (William Blackstone) (1723-1780)
*{{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Michael Arlen), chapter=3/19/2, title=
, passage=Ivor had acquired more than a mile of fishing rights with the house?; he was not at all a good fisherman, but one must do something?; one generally, however, banged a ball with a squash-racket against a wall.}}
To have; to have ownership of.
* 1818 , (Mary Shelley), (Frankenstein) , Volume 3, Chapter 7:
* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)
, chapter=1 To take control of someone's body or mind, especially in a supernatural manner.
To vest ownership in (someone); to give someone power or knowledge; to acquaint; to inform.
* 1599 , (William Shakespeare), (Much Ado About Nothing) ,
* 1599 , (William Shakespeare), (Twelfth Night) , II, 3
In transitive terms the difference between acquire and possess
is that acquire is to gain, usually by one's own exertions; to get as one's own, as, to acquire a title, riches, knowledge, skill, good or bad habits while possess is to take control of someone's body or mind, especially in a supernatural manner.acquire
English
Verb
(acquir)- No virtue is acquired in an instant, but step by step.
- Descent is the title whereby a man, on the death of his ancestor, acquires his estate, by right of representation, as his heir at law.
“Piracy”: A Romantic Chronicle of These Days
Synonyms
* attain, earn, gain, obtain, procure, secure, winDerived terms
* acquired tastepossess
English
Verb
(es)- [...], the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds, which hardly any later friend can obtain.
citation, passage=He read the letter aloud. Sophia listened with the studied air of one for whom, even in these days, a title possessed some surreptitious allurement.}}
- LEONATO. I cannot bid you bid my daughter live;
- That were impossible; but, I pray you both,
- Possess the people in Messina here
- How innocent she died;
- [Sir Toby Belch] Possess' us, '''possess' us ; tell us something of him.