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
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.
With six minutes of regular time remaining, he dispossessed an opponent, surged forward and coolly fired the ball into the net.
From Barron's • Feb. 16, 2026
Goldblatt’s pictures from before these events are touristic and from afterward elegiac; particularly moving are his portraits of the dispossessed, showing their bitterness and their dignity.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 12, 2025
But he was unique among the Democrats in speaking directly to the disaffected and dispossessed middle class.
From Los Angeles Times • Jul. 2, 2025
In the golden age of mobility, the winners were the dispossessed.
From Salon • Mar. 26, 2025
Most of those tribelets were killed off or dispossessed during or soon after the California gold rush of 1848-52, when large numbers of immigrants flooded the state.
From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond
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.
