verb. (conventional).—TO HAVE (q.v.): see GREENS and RIDE.

1

  1620.  MASSINGER and FIELD, The Fatal Dowry, iii. 1.

        To set down to a lady of my rank,
Limits of entertainment?
  Rom.  Sure a legion
Has POSSEST this woman!

2

  c. 1707.  Old Ballad, Woobourn Fair [FARMER, Merry Songs and Ballads (1897), 1 S. iv. 179].

        And tho’ I let Loobies,
Oft finger my Bubbies
Who think when they Kiss me,
That they shall POSSESS me.

3

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 209. The four cut-throats all avowed a like desire of POSSESSING the female who had fallen into their hands; and they were proposing to draw lots for her.

4