Diccionario ingles.comDiccionario ingles.com
Synonyms, antonyms, pronunciation

  Home
English Dictionary      examples: 'day', 'get rid of', 'New York Bay'




Seize on   /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.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








Advanced search
     Find words:
Starting with
Ending with
Containing
Matching a pattern  

Synonyms
Antonyms
Quotes
Words linked to  

only single words



Share |





"Seize on" Quotes from Famous Books



... mountain in its wearing away. Try always, whenever you look at a form, to see the lines in it which have had power over its past fate, and will have power over its futurity. Those are its awful lines; see that you seize on those, whatever else you miss. Thus, the leafage in Fig. 16. (p. 291.) grew round the root of a stone pine, on the brow of a crag at Sestri, near Genoa, and all the sprays of it are thrust away in their first budding by the great rude root, and spring out in every direction ...
— The Crown of Wild Olive • John Ruskin

... felt it was genius, and could only note contributing circumstances—an eye that took in the preacher from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot; an almost uncannie insight into character; the instinct to seize on every scrap of evidence; a memory that was simply an automatic register; an unfailing sense of fitness; and ...
— Beside the Bonnie Brier Bush • Ian Maclaren

... their characteristic instincts. Of the Silurus, however, a genus of the same great family, I read elsewhere that some of the species, such as the Silurus glanis, being unwieldy in their motions, do not pursue their prey, which consists of small fishes, but lie concealed among the mud, and seize on the chance stragglers that come their way. And of the Pimelodus gulio, a little, strongly-helmed fish, with a naked body, I was informed by Mr. Duff, on the authority of the gentleman who had presented the specimens to the Museum, that ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller

... end they determined to seize on and control all the resources of the Federal Government, and to spread their institutions through new States and Territories until the balance of power should fall into their hands and they should be able to force slavery into all ...
— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 63, January, 1863 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... when Learning her last prize bestows, The glittering eminence exempt from foes; See, when the vulgar 'scapes, despised or awed, Rebellion's vengeful talons seize on Laud. From meaner minds though smaller fines content, The plunder'd palace, or sequester'd rent, 170 Mark'd out by dangerous parts he meets the shock, And fatal Learning leads him to the block: ...
— Poetical Works of Johnson, Parnell, Gray, and Smollett - With Memoirs, Critical Dissertations, and Explanatory Notes • Samuel Johnson, Thomas Parnell, Thomas Gray, and Tobias Smollett


More quotes...



Copyright © 2025 Diccionario ingles.com