dispossessed
Americanadjective
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evicted, as from a dwelling, land, etc.; ousted.
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without property, status, etc., as wandering or displaced persons; rootless; disfranchised.
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having suffered the loss of expectations, prospects, relationships, etc.; disinherited; disaffiliated; alienated.
The modern city dweller may feel spiritually dispossessed.
Etymology
Origin of dispossessed
First recorded in 1590–1600; dispossess + -ed 2
Explanation
Someone who's dispossessed has had something important, like their home or their sense of safety and security, taken away from them. Most people who are described as dispossessed have lost their possessions, the things that belonged to them. This usually includes essential things including a place to live, a homeland, or basic rights. The word possess, or "own," is at the heart of this adjective, from a Latin root meaning "to have and hold," or "to control." Taking away someone's property, or their ability to control their own life, leaves them dispossessed.
Vocabulary lists containing dispossessed
"Bonne Annee," Vocabulary from the personal essay
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It's Trevor Noah: Born a Crime
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Vocabulary from Readings, Unit 3
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Dispossessed of his father and fatherland, a rootless Eastern European Jew on a continent gripped by nationalist fever, Roth’s self-identity was especially tenuous.
From Washington Post • Jan. 5, 2023
Ursula K. LeGuin's 1974 book, "The Dispossessed: An Ambiguous Utopia," is exemplary in this regard.
From Salon • Feb. 19, 2022
The Dispossessed is a perfect example of how speculative fiction allows us to step out of our own frameworks.
From Slate • Jun. 20, 2020
That history informs the interplanetary cultural constructs in Le Guin’s great works of the 1960s and 1970s: Planet of Exile, City of Illusions, The Word for World Is Forest and The Dispossessed.
From Nature • Feb. 22, 2018
Dispossessed of his realm in favour of the founder of the imperial dynasty, Oho-kuni-nushi-no-Kami became the ruler of the Unseen World,—that is to say the World of Ghosts.
From Japan: an Attempt at Interpretation by Hearn, Lafcadio
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
