prepossess

Definitions

  • WordNet 3.6
    • v prepossess influence (somebody's) opinion in advance
    • v prepossess make a positive impression (on someone) beforehand "A prepossessing appearance"
    • v prepossess cause to be preoccupied "The idea of his failure prepossesses him"
    • v prepossess possess beforehand
    • ***
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
    • Prepossess To preoccupy, as ground or land; to take previous possession of.
    • Prepossess To preoccupy, as the mind or heart, so as to preclude other things; hence, to bias or prejudice; to give a previous inclination to, for or against anything; esp., to induce a favorable opinion beforehand, or at the outset. "It created him enemies, and prepossessed the lord general."
    • ***
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
    • prepossess To preoccupy, as ground or land; take previous possession of.
    • prepossess To preoccupy the mind or heart of; imbue beforehand with some opinion or estimate; bias; prejudice: as, his appearance and manners strongly prepossessed them in his favor. Prepossess is more frequently used in a good sense than prejudice, and the participial adjective prepossessing has always a good sense.
    • ***
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
    • v.t Prepossess prē-poz-zes′ to possess beforehand: to fill beforehand, as the mind with some opinion: to bias or prejudice
    • ***

Usage

In literature:

I blushed with pleasure to the tips of my ears, to be thought the father of so prepossessing a child.
"Tramping on Life" by Harry Kemp
Certainly not one of them was at first blush prepossessing.
"Henry Brocken" by Walter J. de la Mare
His appearance was not prepossessing.
"The Rustlers of Pecos County" by Zane Grey
He approaches this question free from any doctrinal prepossessions whatever.
"Constructive Imperialism" by Viscount Milner
The Swakop is by no means the usual prepossessing kind of stream that flows efficiently between wide banks.
"With Botha in the Field" by Eric Moore Ritchie
The general appearance of Edinburgh prepossesses one in its favour.
"Three Years in Europe" by William Wells Brown
Stevenson was not a prepossessing figure at these times.
"A Dutch Boy Fifty Years After" by Edward Bok
Indeed his whole appearance might be termed bland and prepossessing.
"Fardorougha, The Miser The Works of William Carleton, Volume One" by William Carleton
The appearance of this man was anything but prepossessing.
"The Black Baronet; or, The Chronicles Of Ballytrain The Works of William Carleton, Volume One" by William Carleton
He had in the first place no prepossession in favor of the United States.
"Atlantic Monthly,Volume 14, No. 82, August, 1864" by Various
***

In poetry:

"If you abjure the social toast,
And pipes, and such frivolities,
You possibly some day may boast
My prepossessing qualities!"
"Bob Polter" by William Schwenck Gilbert

In news:

How about an ex-one term congressman, a man of no prepossessing appearance, who'd lost his last two political campaigns.
pbs.org
***

Related words