- past tense form of dispossess.
- past participle of dispossess.
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
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
Her 1974 novel The Dispossessed, viewed by some as her masterpiece, juxtaposes three political systems—capitalist, socialist, anarcho-syndicalist—allowing their relative strengths and weaknesses to play out.
From Slate • Jan. 24, 2018
Dispossessed of their ancient power and wealth, they were content now to fill a place in the royal household, to be the king's pensioners and the elegant embellishment of his court.
From General History for Colleges and High Schools by Myers, Philip Van Ness
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.
