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Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
possessed
adjective
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
what possessed sb (to do sth)?
▪ I don't know what possessed me to buy such an ugly dress.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ Her family thought that she was possessed, and called in a priest.
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Possessed

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.

    Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land.
    --Jer. xxxii. 15.

    Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power, After offense returning, to regain Love once possessed.
    --Milton.

  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.

    I am yours, and all that I possess.
    --Shak.

  3. To obtain occupation or possession of; to accomplish; to gain; to seize.

    How . . . to possess the purpose they desired.
    --Spenser.

  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.

    Those which were possessed with devils.
    --Matt. iv. 24.

    For ten inspired, ten thousand are possessed.
    --Roscommon.

  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.

    I have possessed your grace of what I purpose.
    --Shak.

    Record a gift . . . of all he dies possessed Unto his son.
    --Shak.

    We possessed our selves of the kingdom of Naples.
    --Addison.

    To possess our minds with an habitual good intention.
    --Addison.

    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.

Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
possessed

"controlled by an indwelling demon," 1530s, past participle adjective from possess (v.).

Wiktionary
possessed
  1. 1 control#Verb by evil spirits. 2 seize by powerful emotions. 3 (context construed with '''of''' not comparable English) have; owning. v

  2. (en-past of: possess)

WordNet
possessed
  1. adj. influenced or controlled by a powerful force such as a strong emotion; "by love possessed" [syn: obsessed, possessed(p)]

  2. in a murderous frenzy 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)]

Wikipedia
Possessed (1947 film)

Possessed is a 1947 American film noir psychological drama directed by Curtis Bernhardt, starring Joan Crawford, Van Heflin, and Raymond Massey in a tale about an unstable woman's obsession with her ex-lover. The screenplay by Ranald MacDougall and Silvia Richards was based upon a story by Rita Weiman.

Possessed (band)

Possessed is an American death metal band, originally formed in 1983. Noted for their fast style of playing and Jeff Becerra's guttural vocals, they are routinely called the first band in the death metal genre. After breaking up in 1987, and briefly reforming from 1990 to 1993, the band reformed under original bassist/vocalist Jeff Becerra in 2007, and has a new album in the works.

Possessed

Possessed may refer to:

Possessed (2000 film)

Possessed is a 2000 Showtime original movie starring Timothy Dalton, based on events appearing in the book Possessed by Thomas B. Allen, which is inspired by the exorcism case of Roland Doe;

The film was released on DVD in the USA on October 2, 2001.

Possessed (1931 film)

Possessed is a 1931 American Pre-Code drama film directed by Clarence Brown, starring Joan Crawford and Clark Gable, and released by Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer. The film is the story of Marian Martin, a factory worker who rises to the top as the mistress of a wealthy attorney. The screenplay by Lenore J. Coffee was adapted from the 1920 Broadway play The Mirage by Edgar Selwyn. Possessed was the third of eight movie collaborations between Crawford and Gable.

Possessed (2006 film)

Possessed is a 2006 Malaysian horror film starring Amber Chia and Harisu, and is the second feature film by director Bjarne Wong.

Possessed (roller coaster)

Possessed is a launched steel Inverted roller coaster located at Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom in Allentown, Pennsylvania. It was located at Geauga Lake from 2000 to 2006. The coaster has had four names: Superman: Ultimate Escape (2000 to 2003) Steel Venom (2004 to 2006), Voodoo (2008), and Possessed (2009 to present).

Possessed (Venom album)

Possessed is the fourth album by English heavy metal band Venom. It is the band's last studio album to feature guitarist Jeffrey Dunn before his first departure from the band in 1986. At the time of its release, it received mixed reviews, even from critics who had liked Venom's earlier albums; Possessed was thought to be in another league as compared to the band's earlier works, even though much of the material on Possessed was written before the release of its predecessor, At War with Satan. It was the first Venom album recorded outside of Impulse Studios. The song "Possessed" is ranked No. 14 on the Parents Music Resource Center's "Filthy Fifteen", a list of the 15 songs the group found to be most objectionable.

The boy on the cover is the son of the band's drummer, Abaddon. The girl is the niece of producer Keith Nichol.

Possessed (1983 film)

Possessed is a 1983 Hong Kong film directed by David Lai. It is followed by Possessed II in 1984.

Possessed (Gojira album)

Possessed is the second demo release by Gojira, at that time, the group was still called Godzilla. The music is old-school death metal (except for the last song). The album contains some of the band's earliest demos. It was recorded in April 1997 at studio Antéa (Bordeaux), remastered by Laurentx Etxemendi at the Studio des Milans (Ondres) and reprinted in 2003 by Gabriel Editions.

Possessed (novel)

Possessed is a 1939 novel by the Polish writer Witold Gombrowicz, published under the pseudonym Zdisław Niewieski. It is a pastiche of gothic and serial novels in the vein of Horace Walpole and Eugène Sue.

Usage examples of "possessed".

For the mind and the passion of Hitler - all the aberrations that possessed his feverish brain - had roots that lay deep in German experience and thought.

It came to him with the force of a revelation that Cass excelled in everything she did, and that had she not married him all these talents would have died aborning This aroused in him a fierce protectiveness towards her which he had not suspected he possessed.

Those three literati were the Marquis Maffei, the Abbe Conti, and Pierre Jacques Martelli, who became enemies, according to public rumour, owing to the belief entertained by each of them that he possessed the favours of the actress, and, being men of learning, they fought with the pen.

Never was an actress found who could replace her, and to find one it would be necessary that she should unite in herself all the perfections which Silvia possessed for the difficult profession of the stage: action, voice, intelligence, wit, countenance, manners, and a deep knowledge of the human heart.

Viviana possessed a certain acuity of mind, then, despite her frail emotional state.

He possessed the elegant accomplishments of a poet and orator, which dignify as well as adorn the humblest and the most exalted station.

Cooks, New Zealand, and Hawaii all possessed adzes and other cultural features of Eastern Polynesian type.

His breath possessed her mouth, moving in and out in agonizing pulses.

The senior Aikido sensei was said to be a most remarkable man, possessed of ki and the leading figure of his discipline but his pupil Sato, though promising, was not of that caliber.

At the same time I sent to Schill a clever spy, who gave him a most alarming account of the means of defence which Hamburg possessed.

But, alongst with this, I was also certain that he was possessed of some supernatural power, of the source of which I was wholly ignorant.

Such lacquered lohans are extremely rare, but the Ancestress possessed no less than twelve of them.

Singular, communed the guest with himself, the wonderfully unequal faculty of metempsychosis possessed by them, that the puerperal dormitory and the dissecting theatre should be the seminaries of such frivolity, that the mere acquisition of academic titles should suffice to transform in a pinch of time these votaries of levity into exemplary practitioners of an art which most men anywise eminent have esteemed the noblest.

The greatest paradox the Apologist has to assert is connected by him with the most impressive remembrance possessed by his readers as philosophers.

When you touch me, I become a woman possessed, and my frenzy is not appeased until we come together as one.