POSSESS in a Sentence

Learn POSSESS from example sentences, some of them are from classic books. These examples are selected from a corpus with 300,000 sentences, including classic works and current mainstream media. Some sentences also link to their contexts.

For POSSESS, below is one of 277 sentences:
Parted lovers beguile absence by a thousand chimerical devices, which possess, however, a reality of their own.

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 Meanings and Examples of POSSESS
Definition Example Sentence Classic Sentence
possess
 v.  occupy in person; hold or actually have in one's own keeping; have the legal title to
Classic Sentence: (210 in 15 pages)
1  The kingdom is upwards of three hundred leagues in diameter, and divided into thirty provinces; there the Fathers possess all, and the people nothing; it is a masterpiece of reason and justice.
Candide By Voltaire
Context  Highlight   In XIV
2  It is sad to think that the love of a mother can possess villainous aspects.
Les Misérables 1 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 4: CHAPTER III—THE LARK
3  Gross natures have this in common with naive natures, that they possess no transition state.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3: CHAPTER VIII—THE UNPLEASANTNESS OF RECEIVING INTO ONE'S H...
4  These words possess the mysterious and admirable property of swelling the bill on the following day.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 3: CHAPTER VIII—THE UNPLEASANTNESS OF RECEIVING INTO ONE'S H...
5  They possess nothing of their own, and they must not attach themselves to anything.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 6: CHAPTER II—THE OBEDIENCE OF MARTIN VERGA
6  The nuns here possess one privilege, it is to be taken to that cemetery at nightfall.
Les Misérables 2 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 8: CHAPTER I—WHICH TREATS OF THE MANNER OF ENTERING A CONVEN...
7  Nevertheless, whatever may be the contrast, all these toilers, from the highest to the most nocturnal, from the wisest to the most foolish, possess one likeness, and this is it: disinterestedness.
Les Misérables 3 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 7: CHAPTER I—MINES AND MINERS
8  Gold and silver possess an odor for them.
Les Misérables 3 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 7: CHAPTER IV—COMPOSITION OF THE TROUPE
9  The unfortunate convict is supposed to possess merely a sou; not at all, he possesses liberty.
Les Misérables 3 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 8: CHAPTER XX—THE TRAP
10  The wine-shops of the Faubourg Antoine, which have been more than once drawn in the sketches which the reader has just perused, possess historical notoriety.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 1: CHAPTER V—FACTS WHENCE HISTORY SPRINGS AND WHICH HISTORY ...
11  Parted lovers beguile absence by a thousand chimerical devices, which possess, however, a reality of their own.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 5: CHAPTER IV—A HEART BENEATH A STONE
12  We have happiness, we desire paradise; we possess paradise, we desire heaven.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 5: CHAPTER IV—A HEART BENEATH A STONE
13  These lamentable tribes of darkness have no longer merely the desperate audacity of actions, they possess the heedless audacity of mind.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 7: CHAPTER III—SLANG WHICH WEEPS AND SLANG WHICH LAUGHS
14  So Marius possessed Cosette, as spirits possess, but he enveloped her with all his soul, and seized her jealously with incredible conviction.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 8: CHAPTER VI—MARIUS BECOMES PRACTICAL ONCE MORE TO THE EXTE...
15  To have Cosette, to possess Cosette, this, to him, was not to be distinguished from breathing.
Les Misérables 4 By Victor Hugo
Context  Highlight   In BOOK 8: CHAPTER VI—MARIUS BECOMES PRACTICAL ONCE MORE TO THE EXTE...
Example Sentence: (67 in 5 pages)
16  He distributed his possessions among his heirs.
17  That small room contained the sum total of the family's possessions.
18  They have no legal liability for damage to customers' possessions.
19  The management handed back his few possessions.
20  They threatened to shoot him and robbed him of all his possessions.
21  He went west as pioneer with only the possessions he could carry with him.
22  You cannot legally take possession of the property until three weeks after the contract is signed.
23  He was also charged with illegal possession of firearms.
24  The possession of a passport is essential for foreign travel.
25  No possession, but use, is the only riches.
26  Man's best possession is a loving wife.
27  Conquer of fear of death and you are put into possession of your life.
28  The possession of a degree does not guarantee you a job.
29  Happiness lies not in the mere possession of money.
30  The most precious possession that ever comes to a man in this world is a woman's heart.