What is the difference between possess and own?
possess | own | Synonyms |
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
(lb) To have rightful possession of (property, goods or capital); "To possess by right; to have the right of property in; to have the legal right or rightful title to." (Ref 1)
(lb) To admit, concede, grant, allow, acknowledge, confess; not to deny.
* 1902 , Joseph Conrad, Heart of Darkness , Tank Books 2007, p. 25:
* 1913 ,
(lb) To claim as one's own; to answer to.
* 1851 , Herman Melville, Moby-Dick
(lb) To acknowledge or admit the possession or ownership of. (Ref 3)
(lb) To defeat or embarrass; to overwhelm.
(lb) To virtually or figuratively enslave.
To defeat, dominate, or be above, also spelled (m).
To illicitly obtain "super-user" or "root" access into a computer system thereby having access to all of the user files on that system; pwn.
Belonging to; possessed; proper to.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=8
, passage=I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.}}
* , chapter=10
, title= * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-21, author=(Oliver Burkeman)
, volume=189, issue=2, page=27, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly)
, title= (obsolete) Peculiar, domestic.
(obsolete) Not foreign.
(obsolete) To grant; give.
To admit; concede; acknowledge.
* 1611 , Shakespeare, The Tempest , v.:
* 1843 , (Thomas Carlyle), '', book 2, ch. 1, ''Jocelin of Brakelond
To recognise; acknowledge.
To confess.
Own is a synonym of possess.
In transitive terms the difference between possess and own
is that possess is to take control of someone's body or mind, especially in a supernatural manner while own is to recognise; acknowledge.As an adjective own is
belonging to; possessed; proper to.possess
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.
Quotations
*Synonyms
* seise * (qualities or characteristics) inholdown
English
Etymology 1
(wikipedia own) From (etyl) (m), from (etyl) , (etyl) (m). See also the related term (m).Verb
(en verb)- I own this car.
- I am sorry to own I began to worry then.
- They learned how perfectly peaceful the home could be. And they almost regretted—though none of them would have owned to such callousness—that their father was soon coming back.
- I own thy speechless, placeless power; but to the last gasp of my earthquake life will dispute its unconditional, unintegral mastery in me.
- I will own my enemies.
- If he wins, he will own you.
Synonyms
* (have rightful possession of) to possess * (acknowledge responsibility for) be responsible for, admit or take responsibility for * (admit) confess, acknowledge, allow * (defeat) beat, defeat, overcome, overthrow, vanquish, have, take, bestDerived terms
* owndom * own up * owner * pwn * disownEtymology 2
From (etyl) (m), .Alternative forms
* (informal contraction)Adjective
(en determiner)The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own .}}
The tao of tech, passage=The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you
Usage notes
* implying ownership, often with emphasis. It always follows a possessive pronoun, or a noun in the possessive case.Derived terms
* come into one's own * on one's ownEtymology 3
From (etyl) is attested.Etymology] of the German cognate in [[:w:de:Deutsches Wörterbuch, Deutsches Wörterbuch]
Verb
(en verb)- Two of those fellows you must know and own .
- It must be owned , the good Jocelin, spite of his beautiful childlike character, is but an altogether imperfect 'mirror' of these old-world things!
- to own one as a son