SEIZE ON • E-FREE TRANSLATION.COM • Definition of Seize on

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/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.

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Etymology of 'Seize on'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Seize on" Quotes from Famous Books

... Phyl as a Burgomaster gull might seize on a puffin chick, he had picked her up on the road to carry her off regardless of everything but his own desire for her—a desire so strong that he would have dashed her and himself to pieces rather than ...

— The Ghost Girl • H. De Vere Stacpoole

... conduct the mind with painful subtility through the multiplied steps of a long demonstration. At other times he would glance upon the main topics of his argument, and seize on his conclusion by a sort of intuitive penetration. He frequently embellished his subject with the higher ornaments of style, and diffused around the severer sciences the graces and elegancies of taste. For force of expression he might be compared to Chatham, and ...

— The History of Dartmouth College • Baxter Perry Smith

... stuff they work in. In moments of excitement his odd irregular features seemed to grow fluid, to unmake and remake themselves like the shadows of clouds on a stream. Darrow, through the rapid flight of the shadows, could not seize on any specific indication of feeling: he merely perceived that the young man was unaccountably surprised at finding him with Miss Viner, and that the extent of his surprise might cover all ...

— The Reef • Edith Wharton

... 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 ...

— Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 11, No. 63, January, 1863 - A Magazine Of Literature, Art, And Politics • Various

... 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. 63) 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 ...

— The Elements of Drawing - In Three Letters to Beginners • John Ruskin

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