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Possession vs Have - What's the difference?

possession | have |

As a noun possession

is control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.

As a verb possession

is (obsolete) to invest with property.

As an adjective have is

gaunt; pale and thin.

possession

English

Noun

(wikipedia possession) (en noun)
  • Control or occupancy of something for which one does not necessarily have private property rights.
  • Something that is owned.
  • The car quickly became his most prized possession .
    I would gladly give all of my worldly possessions just to be able to do that.
  • Ownership]]; [[take, taking, holding, keeping something as one's own.
  • The car is in my possession .
    I'm in possession of the car.
  • A territory under the rule of another country.
  • Réunion is the largest of France's overseas possessions .
  • The condition or affliction of being possessed by a demon or other supernatural entity.
  • Back then, people with psychiatric disorders were sometimes thought to be victims of demonic possession .
  • * Shakespeare
  • How long hath this possession held the man?
  • (sports) Control of the ball; the opportunity to be on the offensive.
  • The scoreboard shows a little football symbol next to the name of the team that has possession .
  • * {{quote-news
  • , year=2010 , date=December 29 , author=Chris Whyatt , title=Chelsea 1 - 0 Bolton , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Their first half was marred by the entire side playing too deep, completely unable to build up any form of decent possession once the ball left their bewildered defence.}}
  • (linguistics) A syntactic relationship between two nouns or nominals that may be used to indicate ownership.
  • Some languages distinguish between a construction like 'my car', which shows alienable possession''' — the car could become someone else's — and one like 'my foot', which has inalienable '''possession — my foot will always be mine.

    Usage notes

    * One who possesses is often said to have possession (of)'', ''hold possession (of)'', or ''be in possession (of) . * One who acquires is often said to take possession (of)'', ''gain possession (of)'', or ''come into possession (of) .

    Synonyms

    * ight (obsolete) * owndom, retention * See also

    Antonyms

    * absence

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (obsolete) To invest with property.
  • (Webster 1913)

    Statistics

    * ----

    have

    English

    Verb

    : Additional archaic forms are second-person singular present tense hast 'and second-person singular past tense''' hadst''' or ' haddest .
  • To possess, own, hold.
  • I have a house and a car.
    Look what I have here — a frog I found on the street!
  • To be related in some way to (with the object identifying the relationship).
  • I have two sisters.
    The dog down the street has a lax owner.
  • To partake of a particular substance (especially a food or drink) or action.
  • I have breakfast at six o'clock.
    Can I have a look at that?
    I'm going to have some pizza and a beer right now.
  • Used in forming the and the past perfect aspect.
  • I have already eaten today.
    I had already eaten.
  • must.
  • I have to go.
    Note: there's a separate entry for have to .
  • To give birth to.
  • The couple always wanted to have children.
    My wife is having the baby right now!
  • To engage in sexual intercourse with.
  • He's always bragging about how many women he's had .
  • To accept as a romantic partner.
  • Despite my protestations of love, she would not have me.
  • (transitive with bare infinitive ) To cause to, by a command or request.
  • They had me feed their dog while they were out of town.
  • (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement ) To cause to be.
  • He had him arrested for trespassing.
    The lecture's ending had the entire audience in tears.
  • (transitive with bare infinitive ) To be affected by an occurrence. (Used in supplying a topic that is not a verb argument.)
  • The hospital had several patients contract pneumonia last week.
    I've had three people today tell me my hair looks nice.
  • (transitive with adjective or adjective-phrase complement ) To depict as being.
  • Their stories differed; he said he'd been at work when the incident occurred, but her statement had him at home that entire evening.
    Anton Rogan, 8, was one of the runners-up in the Tick Tock Box short story competition, not Anton Rogers as we had it.'' — ''The Guardian .
  • Used as interrogative auxiliary verb with a following pronoun to form tag questions. (For further discussion, see "Usage notes" below)
  • We haven't eaten dinner yet, have we ?
    Your wife hasn't been reading that nonsense, has she ?
    (UK usage) He has some money, hasn't he ?
  • (British, slang) To defeat in a fight; take.
  • I could have him!
    I'm gonna have you!
  • (Irish) To be able to speak a language.
  • I have no German .
  • To feel or be (especially painfully) aware of.
  • Dan certainly has arms today, probably from scraping paint off four columns the day before.
  • To be afflicted with, to suffer from, to experience something negative
  • He had a cold last week.
    We had a hard year last year, with the locust swarms and all that.
  • To trick, to deceive
  • You had me alright! I never would have thought that was just a joke.
  • (often with present participle) To allow
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 2
  • "You're a very naughty boy. If I've told you once, I've told you a thousand times. I won't have you chasing the geese!"

    Usage notes

    Interrogative auxiliary verb have ...?' (''third-person singular'' '''has ...?''', ''third-person singular negative'' '''hasn't ...?''' ''or'' '''has ... not?''', ''negative for all other persons, singular and plural'' '''haven't ...?''' ''or'' '''have ... not? ); ''in each case, the ellipsis stands for a pronoun * Used with a following pronoun to form tag questions after statements that use "have" to form the perfect tense or (in UK usage) that use "have" in the present tense. *: We haven't eaten dinner yet, have we ? *: Your wife hasn't been reading that nonsense, has she ? *: I'd bet that student hasn't studied yet, have they ? *: You've known all along, haven't you ? *: The sun has already set, has it not ? *: (UK usage'') He has some money, hasn't he ? (''see usage notes below ) * This construction forms a tag that converts a present perfect tense sentence into a question. The tag always uses an object pronoun substituting for the subject. Negative sentences use has'' or ''have'', distinguished by number. Affirmative sentences use the same followed by ''not'', or alternatively, more commonly, and less formally, ''hasn't'' or ''haven't . (See ). * In American usage, this construction does not apply to present tense sentences with has'' or ''have , or their negations, as a verb; it does not apply either to the construction "have got". In those cases, use "does" or its negation instead. For example: "He has some money, doesn't he?" and "I have got enough time, don't I?" These constructions with "do", "does", "don't" or "doesn't" are considered incorrect in UK usage.

    Derived terms

    * -'ve * be had * have a ball * have a cow * have at you * have it in for * have it off * have had enough * have had it * have nots * have someone on * have to * haves

    See also

    * auxiliary verb * past tense * perfect tense

    References