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 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.
Seizer
(Seiz"er) n. One who, or that which, seizes.
Seizin
(Sei"zin) n. [F. saisine. See Seize.]
1. (Law) Possession; possession of an estate of froehold. It may be either in deed or in law; the former
when there is actual possession, the latter when there is a right to such possession by construction of
law. In some of the United States seizin means merely ownership. Burrill.
2. The act of taking possession. [Obs.]
3. The thing possessed; property. Sir M. Halle.
Commonly spelt by writers on law seisin.
Livery of seizin. (Eng. Law) See Note under Livery, 1.
Seizing
(Seiz"ing) n.
1. The act of taking or grasping suddenly.
2. (Naut.) (a) The operation of fastening together or lashing. (b) The cord or lashing used for such
fastening.
