as in to evict
to end the occupancy or possession of
opponents of gentrification claim that the process unfairly dispossesses poorer residents of their long-established homes
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Recent Examples of dispossess
Like Dunbar’s speakers, Hughes’s dispossessed have no way out, and the poem implicitly refutes optimism regarding the Great Migration and racial progress.
—
Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2025
As with the enclosures in England and Scotland, villagers were uprooted and dispossessed to make way for sheep and cattle.
—Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 30 Sep. 2025
The cry is always I have been dispossessed of what belongs to me, my house, the food, foodstuff, the land.
—Paul Tilsley, FOXNews.com, 10 Aug. 2025
A number of Indigenous communities like the Batwa relocated to the periphery of national parks and protected areas—or further—many of them dispossessed of their ancestral homelands, their rights to the terrain, and its resources.
—Katherine Gallardo, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Dec. 2022
See All Example Sentences for dispossess
Literary Hub, 20 Oct. 2025
As with the enclosures in England and Scotland, villagers were uprooted and dispossessed to make way for sheep and cattle.
—Matthew Wills, JSTOR Daily, 30 Sep. 2025
The cry is always I have been dispossessed of what belongs to me, my house, the food, foodstuff, the land.
—Paul Tilsley, FOXNews.com, 10 Aug. 2025
A number of Indigenous communities like the Batwa relocated to the periphery of national parks and protected areas—or further—many of them dispossessed of their ancestral homelands, their rights to the terrain, and its resources.
—Katherine Gallardo, Condé Nast Traveler, 1 Dec. 2022
See All Example Sentences for dispossess
Recent Examples of Synonyms for dispossess
Verb
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The tenant association voted to move to evict these women, their decision no less necessary for being sad.—
Michael Powell,
The Atlantic,
11 Feb. 2026
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But students are not allowed to evict them.—
Jane Arraf,
NPR,
10 Feb. 2026
Verb
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They are accused of conspiring to deprive congregants of their religious rights and of interfering with access to a place of worship.—
Samuel Oakford,
Washington Post,
13 Feb. 2026
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Too little oxygen, and phosphorus bonds with iron and is dragged into the core, depriving the surface of a key ingredient for DNA, cell membranes and energy transfer.—
Samantha Mathewson,
Space.com,
10 Feb. 2026
Cite this Entry
“Dispossess.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/dispossess. Accessed 16 Feb. 2026.
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