seize

(verb)

verb

1. take hold of; grab

- The sales clerk quickly seized the money on the counter

- The mother seized her child by the arm

- Birds of prey often seize small mammals

Similar word(s): clutch, prehend

Definition categories: contact, take

2. take or capture by force

- The terrorists seized the politicians

- The rebels threaten to seize civilian hostages

Definition categories: contact, take

3. take possession of by force, as after an invasion

- the invaders seized the land and property of the inhabitants

- The army seized the town

Similar word(s): appropriate, capture, conquer

Definition categories: possession, arrogate, assume, seize, usurp

4. take temporary possession of as a security, by legal authority

- The FBI seized the drugs

Similar word(s): attach, confiscate, impound, sequester

Definition categories: possession, take

5. seize and take control without authority and possibly with force; take as one's right or possession

- She seized control of the throne after her husband died

Similar word(s): arrogate, assume, usurp

Definition categories: possession, take

6. hook by a pull on the line

Definition categories: contact, hook

7. affect

- Fear seized the prisoners

- The patient was seized with unbearable pains

- He was seized with a dreadful disease

Similar word(s): clutch

Definition categories: cognition, overcome, overpower, overtake, overwhelm, whelm

8. capture the attention or imagination of

- The movie seized my imagination

Similar word(s): grab

Definition categories: cognition, fascinate, intrigue

Sentences with seize as a verb:

- to seize smuggled goods

- to seize a ship after libeling

- a panic seized the crowd

- a fever seized him

- to seize two fish-hooks back to back

- to seize or stop one rope on to another

- to seize on the neck of a horse

- The text which had seized upon his heart with such comfort and strength abode upon him for more than a year. (Southey, Bunyan, p. 21)

- Rust caused the engine to seize, never to run again.