1. If you actually possess
something, you have a stronger legal claim to owning it than someone who merely says it belongs to him or her.
2. something that you say which means that if you have something, it is
difficult for other people to
take it away from you.
1. Dana may say he owns this house, but we actually live in it, and
possession is nine-tenths of the law.
2. It would be hard to ask for
the piano back after they've had it for so long.
Possession is nine-tenths of the law and all that.