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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Own

Ōwn, a.

adjective

a. [O. Eng. owen, awen, auen, aughene, A-S. āgen, p. pr. of āgan, to possess; O. Sax. ēgan, O. H. Ger. ēgan, N. H. Ger. & D. eigen, Icel. eigin, Sw., Dan., & L. Ger. egen. See OWE.] 1. Belonging to; belonging exclusively to; peculiar;—most frequently following a possessive pronoun (as my, our, thy, your, his, her, it, their), in order to render emphatic the idea of ownership or property, and sometimes of exclusive ownership; as, my own father, that is, my true and not my reputed father; my own composition, that is, that which I wrote, and no one else. “No man was his own [i. e., no man was himself, or in his senses].” Shak.

Ōwn, v. t.

verbtransitive

v. t. [imp. & p. p. OWNED; p. pr. & vb. n. OWNING.] [From the adjective.]

Sense 1. To hold as property; to have a legal or rightful title to; to be the proprietor or possessor of; as, to own a house.

Sense 2. To acknowledge the possession of; to claim or admit as belonging to, as property, and the like.

When you come, find me out, And own me for your son. Dryden.

Sense 3. To avow as one's own; that is, as that for which one is responsible; to acknowledge; to admit; to confess; as, to own a fault.

The wakeful bloodhound rose, and shook his hide; But his sagacious eye an inmate owns. Keats.