Friday, April 22, 2016

SATAN'S POSSE

posse

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noun  pos·se \ˈpä-sē\
Popularity: Top 40% of words

Simple Definition of posse

  • : a group of people who were gathered together by a sheriff in the past to help search for a criminal
  • : a group of people who are together for a particular purpose
  • : a group of friends

Full Definition of posse

  1. 1:  a large group often with a common interest
  2. 2:  a body of persons summoned by a sheriff to assist in preserving the public peace usually in an emergency
  3. 3:  a group of people temporarily organized to make a search (as for a lost child)
  4. 4:  entourage 1

Examples of posse in a sentence

  1. The sheriff and his posse rode out to look for the bandits.
  2. I went to the game with my posse.

Did You Know?

Posse started out as a technical term in law, part of the term "posse comitatus," which in Medieval Latin meant power or authority of the county. As such, it referred to a group of citizens summoned by a sheriff to preserve the public peace as allowed for by law. "Preserving the public peace" so often meant hunting down a supposed criminal that "posse" eventually came to mean any group organized to make a search or embark on a mission. In even broader use it can refer to any group, period. Sometimes nowadays that group is a gang or a rock band but it can as easily be any group - of politicians, models, architects, tourists, children, or what have you - acting in concert.

Origin of posse

Medieval Latin posse comitatus, literally, power or authority of the county

First Known Use: 1645

Rhymes with posse


POSSE Defined for Kids

posse

play
noun  pos·se \ˈpä-sē\

Definition of posse for Students

  1. :  a group of people gathered together to make a search and especially in the past to search for a criminal


Learn More about posse


Seen and Heard

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