SEIZE ON • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Seize on

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/siz ɑn/ Listen

verb

Seize v. t. (past & past part. seized; pres. part. seizing)

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

2.

To take possession of by force. "At last they seize The scepter, and regard not David's sons."

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."

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."

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. Note: 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."

To seize on or To seize upon, to fall on and grasp; to take hold on; to take possession of suddenly and forcibly.

Synonyms: To catch; grasp; clutch; snatch; apprehend; arrest; take; capture.

See images of 'Seize on'

Etymology of 'Seize on'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Seize on" Quotes from Famous Books

... it deliberately. Men are mostly hateful things, but I think in business they're more dependable than women—think more about telling a lie or letting any one down. The point for you to seize on is this—if you haven't noticed it already: that Beryl has become an uncommonly good business woman. And what's more, my dear, you've improved her just as you improved me" (Honoria deprecates this with a gesture, as she sits looking into the fire). "Beryl's talk is getting ...

— Mrs. Warren's Daughter - A Story of the Woman's Movement • Sir Harry Johnston

... Alone to Fox Hall, and walked and saw young Newport and two more rogues of the town seize on two ladies, who walked with them an hour with their masks on; (perhaps civil ladies;) ...

— The Diary of Samuel Pepys • Samuel Pepys

... opportunity to inform Mr. North that I had respect only to two articles in said Results." He apologizes for the speech, but at the same time defends his criticism of the two articles as arbitrary measures. He also confesses saying that "General Court had no Business to direct Committees to seize on Estates before they had been Confiscated in a course of Law," and "that their Constituents never elected or sent them for that Purpose," but this sentiment he claimed that he had subsequently retracted as rash and improper to be spoken. These objectionable expressions of opinion, ...

— The Bay State Monthly, Volume I. No. VI. June, 1884 - A Massachusetts Magazine • Various

... think himself master: and it is the very condition of the subdued not to be able to dispute their right. But if that be all, it gives no other title than what bare force gives to the stronger over the weaker: and, by this reason, he that is strongest will have a right to whatever he pleases to seize on. Sec. 185. Over those then that joined with him in the war, and over those of the subdued country that opposed him not, and the posterity even of those that did, the conqueror, even in a just war, hath, by his conquest, no right of dominion: ...

— Two Treatises of Government • John Locke

... broke great seas, the waves hissing and foaming as though angry at being cheated of their prey. The storm-swept waters seemed to seize on the rope, as though to pull it beneath the billows. The anchor that held the rope which passed over the "shears" seemed to be pulling out of the sand packed ...

— The Moving Picture Boys on the Coast • Victor Appleton

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