Word Finder - seizing

definition

To deliberately take hold of; to grab or capture.

synonyms

• clasp
• grasp
• grip

definition

To take advantage of (an opportunity or circumstance).

synonyms

• jump on

definition

To take possession of (by force, law etc.).

example

to seize a ship after libeling

synonyms

• arrogate
• commandeer
• confiscate

definition

To have a sudden and powerful effect upon.

example

a fever seized him

definition

To bind, lash or make fast, with several turns of small rope, cord, or small line.

example

to seize or stop one rope on to another

definition

To fasten, fix.

definition

To lay hold in seizure, by hands or claws (+ on or upon).

example

to seize on the neck of a horse

definition

To have a seizure.

definition

To bind or lock in position immovably; see also seize up.

example

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

definition

To submit for consideration to a deliberative body.

definition

(with of) To cause (an action or matter) to be or remain before (a certain judge or court).

example

This Court will remain seized of this matter.

definition

The act of grabbing or taking possession.

definition

(chiefly in the plural) Something seized.

example

The pirates buried their seizings and marked the map with an X.

definition

A type of lashing or binding by a small cord.

definition

That seizes the attention; impressive.

Her laughter lashed out in the clear air, seizing his attention.

Trust and seizing the moment are the only chances for success.

At last seizing a soldier by his collar he forced him to answer.

In 1778 the British authorities had little difficulty in seizing the French settlement of Pondicherry.

In 777 the king was visited at Paderborn by three Saracen chiefs who implored his aid against Abdar-Rahman, the caliph of Cordova, and promised some Spanish cities in return for help. Seizing this opportunity to extend his influence Charles marched into Spain in 778 and took Pampeluna, but meeting with some checks decided to return.

Whether we look at his pure mathematical or at his physical researches we receive the same impression of Pascal; we see the strongest marks of a great original genius creating new ideas, and seizing upon, mastering, and pursuing farther everything that was fresh and unfamiliar in his time.

The male is very often provided with clasping organs for seizing the female.

It colours all his writings, and is intimately connected with some of the most characteristic attributes of his mind, a quick sympathetic imagination, a fine feeling for local differences, and a scientific instinct for seizing the sequences of cause and effect.

In the innocuous snakes the teeth are simple and uniform in structure, thin, sharp like needles, and bent backwards; their function consists merely in seizing and holding the prey.

When hostilities became inevitable, acting in conjunction with Captain (later General) Nathaniel Lyon, he suddenly transferred the arms in the Federal arsenal at St Louis to Alton, Illinois, and a few days later (May ro, 1861) surrounded and captured a force of state guards which had been stationed at Camp Jackson in the suburbs of St Louis with the intention of seizing the arsenal.

In 1674 a revolt of the people of Sicily against their Spanish rulers gave the French king anopportunityof seizing the island.

Euergetes (247-222) largely increased the library by seizing on the original editions of the dramatists laid up in the Athenian archives, and by compelling all travellers who arrived in Alexandria to leave a copy of any work they possessed.

Capture begins among the lower tribes with the hand, without devices, developing knack and skill in seizing, pursuing, climbing, swimming, and maiming without weapons; and proceeds to gathering with devices that take the place of the hand in dipping, digging, hooking and grasping; weapons for striking, whether clubs, missiles or projectiles; edged weapons of capture, which were rare in America; piercing devices for capture, in lances, barbed spears, harpoons and arrows; traps for enclosing, arresting and killing, such as pens, cages, pits, pen-falls, nets, hooks, nooses, clutches, adhesives, deadfalls, impalers, knife traps and poisons; animals consciously and unconsciously aiding in capture; fire in the form of torches, beacons, burning out and smoking out; poisons and asphyxiators; the accessories to hunting, including such changes in food, dress, shelter, travelling, packing, mechanical tools and intellectual apparatus as demanded by these arts.

But Lobau's heroic efforts had not been in vain; they had given his master time to make his last effort against Wellington; and when the Guard was beaten back the French troops holding Plancenoit kept free the Charleroi road, and prevented the Prussians from seizing Napoleon's line of retreat.

The First Consul, finding his plans of seizing Lisbon frustrated, remonstrated with his brother, who thereupon resigned his post, and returned to Paris, there taking part in the opposition which the Tribunate offered to some of Napoleon's schemes.

The Bourbon sovereigns threatened to make war on the pope in return (France, indeed, seizing on the county of Avignon), and a joint note demanding a retractation, and the abolition of the Jesuits, was presented by the French ambassador at Rome on the 10th of December 1768 in the name of France, Spain and the two Sicilies.

Heracles burst the bonds which bound him, and, seizing his club, slew Busiris with his son Amphidamas and his herald Chalbes.

No sooner is he overcome with sleep than Judith, seizing his sword, strikes off his head and gives it to her maid; both now leave the camp (as they had previously been accustomed to do, ostensibly for prayer) and return to Bethulia, where the trophy is displayed amid great rejoicings and thanksgivings.

In 1861 he took part in the war as brigadier-general of volunteers, and for his skill in seizing certain important strategic points was on the 11th of April 1862 made major-general.

His strong, picturesque mode of seizing and expressing things gave him an immense living influence both in speech and writing, and disseminated a popular knowledge of physical science such as had not previously existed.

Galeazzo left a son, Gian Galeazzo, who became sole lord of Milan by seizing and imprisoning his uncle Bernabo.

The most important function they have to perform, that of seizing and holding firmly animals of considerable size and strength, violently struggling for life, is provided for by the great, sharp-pointed and sharp-edged canines, placed wide apart at the angles of the mouth, the incisors between them being greatly reduced in size and kept back nearly to the same level, so as not to interfere with their action.

A crafty prince, with all the tenacity of his race, Basil succeeded in incorporating with Muscovy the last remnants of the ancient independent principalities, by accusing the princes of Ryazan and Syeversk of conspiracy against him, seizing their persons, and annexing their domains (1517-1523).

The Fatimite general Jauhar (variously represented as of Greek, Slav and Sicilian origin), who enjoyed the complete confidence of the Fatimite sovereign, was placed at the head of an army of 100,000 menif Oriental numbers are to be trustedand started from Rakkada at the beginning of March 969 with the view of seizing Egypt.

Taking advantage of the temporary weakness of Egypt, the French government formed the project of seizing the Upper Nile valley and uniting her possessions in West Africa with those at the entrance to the Red Sea.

In the following year Arnulf succeeded in seizing Rome, and Formosus crowned him emperor.

Early in December 1837 Mackenzie gathered a mob of his followers, to the number of several hundred, at Gallows Hill, some miles to the north of Toronto, with the intention of seizing the lieutenant-governor and setting up a provisional government.

This protection was subsequently withdrawn, the rana having been guilty of treachery, and in 1783 Sindhia succeeded in recapturing the fortress of Gwalior, and crushed his Jat opponent by seizing the whole of Gohad.

In 1616 the Dutch began to compete with the English at Surat, and their piracies against native vessels led to the Mogul governor seizing English warehouses; but soon the native authorities learnt to discriminate between the different European nations, and the unscrupulous methods of the Dutch cast them into disfavour.

At the end of some months, however, he was calumniously accused of conspiracy, and the caliph, seizing the opportunity of ridding himself of a possible rival, threw him into prison, where he died, according to the majority of the historians, of starvation.

His conduct in following them up into the Spanish territory of Florida, in seizing Pensacola, and in arresting and executing two British subjects, Alexander Arbuthnot and Robert Ambrister, gave rise to much hostile comment in the cabinet and in Congress; but the negotiations for the purchase of Florida put an end to the diplomatic difficulty.

Sloat, after seizing Monterey, transferred his command to Commodore Robert Field Stockton (1795-1866), who made Fremont major of a battalion; and by January 1847 Stockton and Fremont completed the conquest of California.

It showed the ease of seizing the country, the indifference of the natives, and the resolution of the United States government.

One outstanding incident was the filibustering expedition of William Walker, who was at first invited by the Liberals of Leon to assist them against the Conservatives of Granada, and who, after seizing the supreme power in 1856, was expelled by the combined forces of the neighbouring states, and on venturing to return was shot at Trujillo in Honduras on the 12th of September 1860.

He had hoped that the king would end by granting a constitution, but when that hope failed he meditated seizing Ferdinand, the emperor of Austria, and Metternich, who were expected at Avellino, and thus compelling them to liberate Italy (1819).

Essex was thus thrown upon his own resources, and his anger against the queen being roused afresh by the refusal to renew his monopoly of sweet wines, he formed the desperate project of seizing her person and compelling her to dismiss from her council his enemies Raleigh, Cobham, and Cecil.

She took the precaution, however, of concluding a fresh secret alliance with Denmark, in which the Swedish revolution was significantly described as " an act of violence " constituting a casus foederis, and justifying both powers in seizing the first favourable opportunity for intervention to restore the Swedish constitution of 1720.

But before setting out for Afghanistan he took measures to secure the internal quiet of Persia, attacking and seizing in his stronghold the chief of the marauding Bakhtiaris, whom he put to death, retaining many of his men for service as soldiers.

In 370 Agesilaus tried to restore Spartan prestige by an invasion of Mantinean territory, and his prudence and heroism saved Sparta when her enemies, led by Epaminondas, penetrated Laconia that same year, and again in 362 when they all but succeeded in seizing the city by a rapid and unexpected march.

It consists in cutting down upon and exposing the nerve, and in seizing hold and drawing upon it so as to stretch it.

When, however, Lysias returned in force to renew the contest, Judas had to fall back upon the Temple mount, and escaped defeat only because the Syrian leader was obliged to hasten back to Antioch in order to prevent a rival from seizing the regency.

The fortress was often besieged and sometimes taken, the Picts seizing it in 736 and the Northmen in 870, but the most effectual surprise of all was that accomplished, in the interests of the young King James VI., by Thomas Crawford of Jordanhill on March 31, 1571.

When on the 13th of August 1836 the soldiers on duty at the summer palace, La Granja, mutinied and forced the regent to grant a constitution, it was generally, though wrongly, believed that they overcame her reluctance by seizing Munoz, whom they called her "guapo," or fancy man, and threatening to shoot him.

By the pact of Andelot in 587 Childebert was recognized as Gontran's heir, and with his uncle's help he quelled the revolts of the nobles and succeeded in seizing the castle of Woewre.

On the death of Gontran in 592 Childebert annexed the kingdom of Burgundy, and even contemplated seizing Clotaire's estates and becoming sole king of the Franks.

Convinced from the first of his disinterestedness and sincerity, and impressed by his penetrating shrewdness and his instinctive faculty of always seizing the main point and sticking to it, his hearers soon felt an absolute confidence in the deputy from Zala county.

When Washington, in the autumn of 1776, was no longer able to hold the lower Hudson he retreated across New Jersey to the Delaware near Trenton and seizing every boat for miles up the river he placed his dispirited troops on the opposite side and left the pursuing army no means of crossing.

In all the Phyllopoda the number of endites is six, and the proximal one is more or less distinctly specialized as a gnathobase, working against its fellow of the opposite side in seizing food and transferring it to the mouth.

Very often one or other of the appendages may be modified for prehension, the seizing of prey or the holding of a mate.

In the nauplius larva they lie rather at the sides than in front of the mouth, and their basal portion carries a hook-like masticatory process which assists the similar processes of the mandibles in seizing food.