Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A group of civilians called upon by a sheriff or other law enforcement official to assist temporarily in preserving the peace or pursuing and arresting a fugitive.
- noun A search party.
- noun A gang involved in crimes such as running guns and illegal narcotics trafficking.
- noun Slang A group of friends or associates.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun Possibility.
- noun A sheriff's posse comitatus (see below); in general, a body or squad of men.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun See
posse comitatus . - noun See
In posse in the Vocabulary.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun US A group of people summoned to help law enforcement
- noun US A search party
- noun US, Jamaica A
criminal gang - noun by extension A group of associates
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun a temporary police force
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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_a posse ad esse non valet consequentia_, you can draw no inference from the possibility of a thing to its reality, but that, in the reverse order, _ab esse ad posse_, the inference is inevitable: if it is, or if it ever has been -- then of necessity it can be.
Theological Essays and Other Papers — Volume 1 Thomas De Quincey 1822
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ROBERTS: You've got 160deputies trained to enforce immigration laws but you have what you call a posse of another 300,000 you can draw upon, about 500 of whom carry weapons.
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Your poor husband ..... probably feels like a posse is after him.
I Can't Seem to Stop.... Jessica 2006
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Wade's posse is one of dozens sent to top-tier universities each year by the New York-based Posse Foundation.
Students 2010
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The delusionary conduct of Mrs. Clinton and her posse is really disturbing, because it could lead to a third term of George Bush, and, if that were to happen, we would not have a country to which we could be patriotic.
Full Michigan delegation with half-vote to be seated by Dems 2008
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Oil will remain high until at least January 2009 when the Bush posse is removed from 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. Ruby
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Dressed as the werewolf Remus Lupin, Mr. Oosting says he feels very close to his posse from the Netherlands.
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Dressed as the werewolf Remus Lupin, Mr. Oosting says he feels very close to his posse from the Netherlands.
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But dude .. matching striped polos for you and your posse is way Montgomery Bell Academy.
Archive 2005-04-01 2005
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Ariana caought the last train leaving that station and, frankly, her posse is no more readable than Kos.
Maybe Pajamas Media wasn’t such a bad name afterall « BuzzMachine 2005
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And Pierce went the other way, advocating for what’s called POSSE, or “Publish (on your) Own Site, Syndicate Everywhere,” where everything you’re doing online is collected on a personal website, regardless of how hideous and unreadable (I personally think) that looks.
Your guide to the guides for fixing the internet Ryan Broderick 2023
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This is often also referred to as the acronym POSSE, for publish on your own site and syndicate everywhere.
Zachary Proser - Open-source hacker, writer, and life-long learner 2023
edwardvielmetti commented on the word posse
Andre the Giant has a posse.
Charles Darwin has a posse.
hypermodernism has a posse - Leslie Harpold.
October 6, 2007