Webster
✕

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Seize

Seize (sēz), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Seized; p. pr. & vb. n. Seizing.] [OE. seisen, saisen, OF. seisir, saisir, F. saisir, of Teutonic origin, and akin to E. set. The meaning is properly, to set, put, place, hence, to put in possession of. See Set, v. t.] 1. To fall or rush upon suddenly and lay hold of; to gripe or grasp suddenly; to reach and grasp.

For by no means the high bank he could seize. Spenser.

Seek you to seize and gripe into your hands The royalties and rights of banished Hereford? Shak.

2. To take possession of by force.

At last they seize The scepter, and regard not David's sons. Milton.

3. To invade suddenly; to take sudden hold of; to come upon suddenly; as, a fever seizes a patient.

Hope and deubt alternate seize her seul. Pope.

4. (law) To take possession of by virtue of a warrant or other legal authority; as, the sheriff seized the debtor's goods.

5. To fasten; to fix. [Obs.]

As when a bear hath seized her cruel claws Upon the carcass of some beast too weak. Spenser.

6. To grap with the mind; to comprehend fully and distinctly; as, to seize an idea.

7. (Naut.) To bind or fasten together with a lashing of small stuff, as yarn or marline; as, to seize ropes.

☞ This word, by writers on law, is commonly written seise, in the phrase to be seised of (an estate), as also, in composition, disseise, disseisin.

To be seized of, to have possession, or right of possession; as, A B was seized and possessed of the manor of Dale. "Whom age might see seized of what youth made prize." Chapman. — To seize on or upon, to fall on and grasp; to take hold on; to take possession of suddenly and forcibly.

Syn. — To catch; grasp; clutch; snatch; apprehend; arrest; take; capture.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty. Of the others, 1,362 (a word or a single letter each) were inferred by AI from the context by the dictionary’s own rules and are marked with a wavy underline (tap or point at one to see the note); the rest, which could not be inferred with confidence, are left as “?”.