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.