own

_own_

Verb.

Pronunciation: əʊn.

Transitively: 1. Obsolete acceptation: to make (a thing) one's own; to appropriate; to adopt as one’s own.

2. To have as one’s own; to have an ownership over (a thing); be the owner of; to have belonging to one.

Synonym: to possess.

Translation: posséder, in French; poseer, in Spanish; possedere, in Italian.

Had Glocester owned the world at the moment, it had been laid a free gift at Elinor's feet.

Thomas Grattan… Jacqueline of Holland,

He owned that house, and somehow contrived to pay the taxes thereon.

Mary Freeman… The Copy-Cat and Other Stories

He could play by ear. His father owned an old violin.

Mary Freeman… The Copy-Cat and Other Stories

Jim owned many cats; counting the kittens, there were probably over twenty.

Mary Freeman… The Copy-Cat and Other Stories

"These things are not yours; they are mine. You never owned them; but I will sell them to you."

David Grayson… Adventures in Contentment

3. To have as a quality.

The voice that asked the question trembled with agitation and fatigue. But the girl who owned the voice stood up stiffly, looking at Miss Manisty with a frowning, almost a threatening shyness.

Humphry Ward… Eleanor

4. To acknowledge (a thing or person) as one's own.

If he had owned the fault, I would have forgiven him; but he was so stubborn, and would not even speak when spoken to.

 Mrs. George Cupples… Bluff Crag

5. Obsolete acceptation: to acknowledge (a person) as an acquaintance.

6. Obsolete acceptation: to claim for one’s own.

7. Archaic acceptation: to manifest one’s approval of; to acknowledge as approved.

8. a. To acknowledge (something) to be related to oneself. b. Hence: to acknowledge (a thing) to be real, or actual, or true; to confess to be a fact.

Synonyms: to admit, concede.

My father, finding it would be impossible to conceal his situation much longer, frankly owned what he had done, and excused himself for not having asked the consent of his father, by saying, he knew it would have been to no purpose.

Tobias Smollett… The Adventures of Roderick Random

Her age was about thirty, for she owned six-and-twenty.

The works of Henry Fielding

As she hopes one day to be admitted into an acquaintance of this kind, she no sooner heard of me and my cat, than she [… visited me], as she has since owned, to be introduced to my familiar.

Tobias Smollett… The Adventures of Roderick Random

"If it be true," he said to himself, "he must have been very sure it would be soon found out, otherwise he would never have owned it."

George Rainsford… The False Heir

-) With a clause or an infinitive as the object:

This dread was not exactly a dread of physical evil - and yet I should be at a loss how otherwise to define it. I am almost ashamed to own - yes, even in this felon's cell, I am almost ashamed to own - that the terror and horror with which the animal inspired me, had been heightened by one of the merest chimaeras it would be possible to conceive.

Edgar Poe

Mr Brayer had read my play, and owned it had undubitable merit.

Tobias Smollett… The Adventures of Roderick Random

And for my part, I own to you that I am very fond of these praises

The Living Age, vol. 29

The difficulty must be owned to be great.

The Edinburgh Review

The incident we all owned to be remarkable.

The novels of Tobias Smollett

Harriet was a little distressed — did look a little foolish at first; but having once owned that she had been presumptuous and silly, and self-deceived, before, her pain and confusion seemed to die away with the words.

Jane Austen… Emma

The captain exulted much in this declaration, and put my journal-book into the hands of one of them, who candidly owned he could neither read nor write: the other acknowledged the same degree of ignorance, but pretended to speak the Greek lingo with any man on board.

Tobias Smollett… The Adventures of Roderick Random

-) With a object + complement:

… her mother, too, owned herself obliged to my resolution.

Tobias Smollett… The Adventures of Roderick Random

And, moreover, she has owned herself in the wrong.

Anne Marsh- Caldwell… Angela

If it could have been shown that the old state of things was the better one, I would have owned myself in error.

Mrs. Newton Crosland… English Tales and Sketches

I own myself at a loss how to act.

Susanna Corder… Life of Elizabeth

Catharine owned herself at fault.

Elizabeth Elton Smith… The three eras

-) With adverb UP, it is a colloquial construction:

It was produced and tasted, and these gentlemen owned up that it was the same wine.

Harper's New Monthly Magazine, vol. 19

Alan owned up that he was already married.

Erle Cox… Out of the Silence

9. To acknowledge (something or someone) as having authority over one; to profess submission to (a person).

 But there was something magnificent, though terrible, in the spectacle of the people of three kingdoms, who owned the authority of one prince.

Sydney Smith… The Edinburgh Review

Intransitively: to acknowledge a thing to be real, or actual, or true; to confess to be a fact; confess (to something).

-) With the preposition TO, followed either by a noun or a gerund, designative of the confession:

 In their confessions, they owned to the most audacious robberies.

All the Year Round, vol. 9

The next day, at something of a late hour, the promised equestrian party appeared. They owned to having been first to Monksden, to tell the good news there.

Anna Porter… Honor O'Hara

"'Your brother is at the bottom of this business, Sampson. Do you remember the half-sheet of paper I found on a blotting-pad in the counting-house one day; half a sheet of paper scrawled over with the imitation of two or three signatures? I asked who had copied those signatures, and your brother came forward and owned to having done it, laughing at his own cleverness.

Elizabeth Braddon… Henry Dunbar

Many who, like ourselves, own to a feeling for the monastic works of art…

The Literary Gazette

-) To own up: (colloquial acceptation) to make a full confession.

He owned up and said that his ancestors were among the Kings of Tipperary.

Thomas Knox… The oriental world

You've made a silly blunder, and you may as well own up to it.

Arthur Doyle… The Disappearance of Lady…