POSSE
Pos"se, n.
Defn: See Posse comitatus. In posse. See In posse in the Vocabulary.
POSSE COMITATUS
Pos"se com`i*ta"tus. Etym: [L. posse to be able, to have power + LL.
comitatus a county, from comes, comitis, a count. See County, and
Power.]
1. (Law)
Defn: The power of the county, or the citizens who may be summoned by the sheriff to assist the authorities in suppressing a riot, or executing any legal precept which is forcibly opposed. Blackstone.
2. A collection of people; a throng; a rabble. [Colloq.]
Note: The word comitatus is often omitted, and posse alone used. "A whole posse of enthusiasts." Carlyle. As if the passion that rules were the sheriff of the place, and came off with all the posse. Locke.
POSSESS
Pos*sess", v. t. [imp. & p. p. Possessed; p. pr. & vb. n.
Possessing.] Etym: [L. possessus, p. p. of possidere to have,
possess, from an inseparable prep. (cf. Position) + sedere to sit.
See Sit.]
1. To occupy in person; to hold or actually have in one's own keeping; to have and to hold. Houses and fields and vineyards shall be possessed again in this land. Jer. xxxii. 15. Yet beauty, though injurious, hath strange power, After offense returning, to regain Love once possessed. Milton.
2. To have the legal title to; to have a just right to; to be master of; to own; to have; as, to possess property, an estate, a book. I am yours, and all that I possess. Shak.