Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Occupancy \Oc"cu*pan*cy\, n. [See {Occupant}.]
   The act of taking or holding possession; possession;
   occupation.

   {Title by occupancy} (Law), a right of property acquired by
      taking the first possession of a thing, or possession of a
      thing which belonged to nobody, and appropriating it.
      --Blackstone. Kent.