verb
- to take away someone’s property or possessions, especially land or a home
Usage: formal; legal contexts
Examples
- The landlord dispossesses tenants who fail to pay rent.
- War often dispossesses families of their homes and belongings.
- The government dispossesses landowners to build new highways.
- Economic hardship dispossesses many people of their savings.
- The court order dispossesses the previous owner of the property.
- Natural disasters can dispossess entire communities overnight.