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The state of being a woman or of possessing full womanly powers; womanhood; -- correlate of virility.

One guilty of murder; a person who, in possession of his reason, unlawfully kills a human being with premeditated malice.

An old name for mosses in the widest sense, including the true mosses and also hepaticæ and sphagna.

An order or subclass of cryptogamous plants; the mosses. See Moss, and Cryptogamia.

Possessed, experienced, or done by two or more persons or things at the same time; common; joint; as, mutual happiness; a mutual effort. Burke. A vast accession of misery and woe from the mutual weeping, and wailing, and gnashing of teeth. Bentley.

The doctrine of innate ideas, or that the mind possesses forms of thought independent of sensation.

possessing nerve; sinewy; strong; vigorous. "Nervous arms." Pope.

n contests between others; state of taking no part on either side; indifference. Men who possess a state of neutrality in times of public danger, desert the interest of their fellow subjects. Addison.

having originated or occured lately; having recently come into existence, or into one's possession; not early or long in being; of late origin; recent; fresh; modern; -- opposed to old, as, a new coat; a new house; a new book; a new fashion. "Your new wife." Chaucer.

an mythology, the children of the mist, a race of dwarfs or demonic beings, the original possessors of the famous hoard and ring won by Siegfrid; also, the Burgundian kings in the Nibelungenlied.

Possessing eminence, elevation, dignity, etc.; above whatever is low, mean, degrading, or dishonorable; magnanimous; as, a noble nature or action; a noble heart. Statues, with winding ivy crowned, belong To nobler poets for a nobler song. Dryden.

enter judgment against (a plaintiff who fails to prosecute); as, the plaintiff was non-prossed.

Any one of the set of elements which, as contrasted with the metals, possess, produce, or receive, acid rather than basic properties; a metalloid; as, oxygen, sulphur, and chlorine are nonmetals.

Resembling, or possessing the properties of, a nonmetal or metalloid; as, sulphur is a nonmetallic element.

Not possessing or holding slaves; as, a nonslaveholding State.

also the notes of external profession. Hooker. She [the Anglican church] has the note of possession, the note of freedom from party titles,the note of life -- a tough life and a vigorous. J. H. Newman. What a note of youth, of imagination, of impulsive eagerness, there was through it all ! Mrs. Humphry Ward.…

A species of demoniac enthusiasm or possession coming upon one who had accidentally looked upon a nymph; ecstasy. [R.] De Quincey. The nympholepsy of some fond despair. Byron.

Possessing only small coins; impoverished. [R.] Lamb.

specifically of a person beset by a spirit from without. Tylor. Whether by obsession or possession, I will not determine. Burton.

To hold; to keep; to possess. [Obs.] His mother, then, is mortal, but his Sire He who obtains the monarchy of heaven. Milton.