Seize

Seize

Verb · /siːz/ · to take hold of suddenly and forcibly

Definition

To seize means to take something quickly and forcibly — to grab, capture, or take control of with sudden decisive action. It applies to physical acts — seize a weapon, seize a person — and to abstract situations: seize an opportunity, seize power, seize the moment. In legal contexts, to seize means to confiscate or impound under authority. In mechanics, a seized engine or seized joint is one that has locked up and stopped moving. The common thread is sudden, firm, often irreversible taking of control.

Origin

From Old French saisir — to take possession of — itself from Frankish or medieval Latin sacire, related to the concept of legal possession and the act of formally putting someone in possession of property. In medieval English law, to seize meant to invest with legal ownership — seised of an estate meant legally in possession of it. By the fourteenth century, the broader sense of to take forcibly had emerged and gradually dominated, while the legal property sense survived in the word seisin, still used in English property law today.