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.