The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
adj. Of or relating to ownership or possession.
adj. Having or manifesting a desire to control or dominate another, especially in order to limit that person's relationships with others: a possessive parent.
adj. Grammar Of, relating to, or being a noun or pronoun case that indicates possession.
adj. Indicating ownership, possession, origin, etc.
adj. Unwilling to yield possession of.
n. The possessive case.
n. A word used to indicate the possessive case.
the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English
adj. Of or pertaining to possession; having or indicating possession.
n. The possessive case.
n. A possessive pronoun, or a word in the possessive case.
The Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
Pertaining to or denoting possession; expressing possession: as in a lady's dress, their house, a mere notion of John's.
n. A pronoun or other word denoting possession.
n. The possessive case.
WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
n. the case expressing ownership
adj. having or showing a desire to control or dominate
adj. serving to express or indicate possession
adj. desirous of owning
Word Usage
"Even if the “ugly spirits,” as he called the possessive forces, could not be exorcised, they could be kept under control, he discovered, through the process of writing about them."