Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Possession \Pos*ses"sion\, n. [F. possession, L. possessio.]
   1. The act or state of possessing, or holding as one's own.

   2. (Law) The having, holding, or detention of property in
      one's power or command; actual seizin or occupancy;
      ownership, whether rightful or wrongful.

   Note: Possession may be either actual or constructive;
         actual, when a party has the immediate occupancy;
         constructive, when he has only the right to such
         occupancy.

   3. The thing possessed; that which any one occupies, owns, or
      controls; in the plural, property in the aggregate;
      wealth; dominion; as, foreign possessions.

            When the young man heard that saying, he went away
            sorrowful, for he had great possessions. --Matt.
                                                  xix. 22.

            Ananias, with Sapphira his wife, sold a possession.
                                                  --Acts v. 1.

            The house of Jacob shall possess their possessions.
                                                  --Ob. 17.

   4. The state of being possessed or controlled, as by an evil
      spirit, or violent passions; madness; frenzy; as,
      demoniacal possession.

            How long hath this possession held the man? --Shak.

   {To give possession}, to put in another's power or occupancy.
      

   {To put in possession}.
      (a) To invest with ownership or occupancy; to provide or
          furnish with; as, to put one in possession of facts or
          information.
      (b) (Law) To place one in charge of property recovered in
          ejectment or writ of entry.

   {To take possession}, to enter upon, or to bring within one's
      power or occupancy.

   {Writ of possession} (Law), a precept directing a sheriff to
      put a person in peaceable possession of property recovered
      in ejectment or writ of entry.