Verb

(es)

To have; to have ownership of.

* 1818 , (Mary Shelley), (Frankenstein) , Volume 3, Chapter 7:

[...], the companions of our childhood always possess a certain power over our minds, which hardly any later friend can obtain.

* {{quote-book, year=1922, author=(Ben Travers), title=(A Cuckoo in the Nest)

, chapter=1 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.}}

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) ,

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;

* 1599 , (William Shakespeare), (Twelfth Night) , II, 3

[Sir Toby Belch] Possess' us, '''possess' us ; tell us something of him.

Verb

(en verb)

(lb) To hold inside.

*

At half-past nine on this Saturday evening, the parlour of the Salutation Inn, High Holborn, contained most of its customary visitors.In former days every tavern of repute kept such a room for its own select circle, a club, or society, of habitués, who met every evening, for a pipe and a cheerful glass.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Welcome to the plastisphere , passage=[The researchers] noticed many of their pieces of [plastic marine] debris sported surface pits around two microns across. Such pits are about the size of a bacterial cell. Closer examination showed that some of these pits did, indeed, contain bacteria,

(lb) To include as a part.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2014-04-21, volume=411, issue=8884, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Subtle effects , passage=Manganism has been known about since the 19th century, when miners exposed to ores containing manganese, a silvery metal, began to totter, slur their speech and behave like someone inebriated.}}

(lb) To put constraint upon; to restrain; to confine; to keep within bounds.

* (Edmund Spenser) (c.1552–1599)

The king's person contains the unruly people from evil occasions.

* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)

Fear not, my lord: we can contain ourselves.

*

Athelstan Arundel walked home all the way, foaming and raging. No omnibus, cab, or conveyance ever built could contain a young man in such a rage. His mother lived at Pembridge Square, which is four good measured miles from Lincoln's Inn.

To have as an element.

To restrain desire; to live in continence or chastity.

* Bible, vii. 9.

But if they can not contain , let them marry.