seize Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. verb take hold of; grab
    clutch; prehend.
    • The sales clerk quickly seized the money on the counter
    • She clutched her purse
    • The mother seized her child by the arm
    • Birds of prey often seize small mammals
  2. verb take or capture by force
    • The terrorists seized the politicians
    • The rebels threaten to seize civilian hostages
  3. verb take possession of by force, as after an invasion
    capture; appropriate; conquer.
    • the invaders seized the land and property of the inhabitants
    • The army seized the town
    • The militia captured the castle
  4. verb take temporary possession of as a security, by legal authority
    attach; sequester; confiscate; impound.
    • The FBI seized the drugs
    • The customs agents impounded the illegal shipment
    • The police confiscated the stolen artwork
  5. verb seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession
    assume; arrogate; take over; usurp.
    • He assumed to himself the right to fill all positions in the town
    • he usurped my rights
    • She seized control of the throne after her husband died
  6. verb hook by a pull on the line
    • strike a fish
  7. verb affect
    clutch; get hold of.
    • Fear seized the prisoners
    • The patient was seized with unbearable pains
    • He was seized with a dreadful disease
  8. verb capture the attention or imagination of
    grab.
    • This story will grab you
    • The movie seized my imagination

WordNet

Seize transitive verb
Etymology
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.
Wordforms
imperfect & past participle Seized ; present participle & verbal noun Seizing
Definitions
  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. Syn. -- To catch; grasp; clutch; snatch; apprehend; arrest; take; capture.

Webster 1913