seize.
To deliberately take hold of; to grab or capture.
Meaning & usage
To deliberately take hold of; to grab or capture.
To take advantage of (an opportunity or circumstance).
To take possession of (by force, law etc.).
to seize smuggled goods
to seize a ship after libeling
To have a sudden and powerful effect upon.
a panic seized the crowd
a fever seized him
Alternative spelling of seise (“to vest ownership of an estate in land”).
To bind, lash or make fast, with several turns of small rope, cord, or small line.
to seize two fish-hooks back to back
to seize or stop one rope on to another
To fasten, fix.
To lay hold in seizure, by hands or claws (+ on or upon).
to seize on the neck of a horse
To have a seizure.
To bind or lock in position immovably; see also seize up.
Rust caused the engine to seize, never to run again.
To submit for consideration to a deliberative body.
[with of] To cause (an action or matter) to be or remain before (a certain judge or court).
This Court will remain seized of this matter.
Of chocolate: to change suddenly from a fluid to an undesirably hard and gritty texture.
Where this word comes from
Earlier seise, from Middle English seisen, sesen, saisen, from Old French seisir (“to take possession of; invest (person, court)”), from Early Medieval Latin sacīre (“to lay claim to, appropriate”) (8th century) in the phrase ad propriam sacire, from Old Low Frankish *sakjan (“to sue, bring legal action”), from Proto-Germanic *sakjaną, *sakōną (compare Old English sacian (“to strive, brawl”)), from Proto-Germanic *sakaną (compare Old Saxon sakan (“to accuse”), Old High German sahhan (“to bicker, quarrel, rebuke”), Old English sacan (“to quarrel, claim by law, accuse”). Cognate to sake and Latin sāgiō (“to perceive acutely”).
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.
Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.