PREPOSSESSION • DICTIONARY ONE.COM • Definition of Prepossession

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noun

Prepossession n.

Preoccupation; prior possession.

Preoccupation of the mind by an opinion, or impression, already formed; preconceived opinion; previous impression; bias; generally, but not always, used in a favorable sense; as, the prepossessions of childhood. "The prejudices and prepossessions of the country."

Synonyms: Bent; bias; inclination; preoccupancy; prejudgment. See Bent.

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Etymology of 'Prepossession'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Prepossession" Quotes from Famous Books

... the functions of shop disciplinarian, so that it was not until he introduced the inspector, with orders to go straight to the men instead of to the gang boss, that he appreciated the desirability of functional foremanship as a distinct principle in management. The prepossession in favor of the military type was so strong with the managers and owners of Midvale that it was not until years after functional foremanship was in continual use in this shop that he dared to advocate it to his superior officers ...

— Shop Management • Frederick Winslow Taylor

... restraining the council's jurisdiction, and the strong prepossession of the people as to the sacredness of freehold rights, made the Star-chamber cautious of determining questions of inheritance, which they commonly remitted to the judges; and from the early part of Elizabeth's reign they took a direct cognizance ...

— The Great Events by Famous Historians, Volume 11 • Various

... Tuesday afternoon. Nobody whose life does not run in mechanical grooves can do anything of the sort; unless, of course, the facts have been very impressive. But this by the way. The great obstacle to veracious observation is the element of prepossession in all vision. Has it ever struck you, sir, that we never see anyone more than once, if that? The first time we meet a man we may possibly see him as he is; the second time our vision is colored and modified by the memory of ...

— The Big Bow Mystery • I. Zangwill

... few preliminary remarks to clear the ground. First of all, there is one ridiculous objection which I quote only to record. I mean that which suspects at the bottom of the theories which we are going to discuss some dark background, some prepossession of irrational mysticism. On the contrary, the truth is, we have here perhaps better than anywhere, the spectacle of pure thought face to face with things. But it is a complete thought, not thought reduced to some partial functions, but sufficiently sure of its critical power to ...

— A New Philosophy: Henri Bergson • Edouard le Roy

... beginning they fought for him. He was regarded as a leader among them when still at Oxford. Yet his early writings show no trace of such a prepossession; they are wholly void of offence, without even a suggestion of coarseness, as pure indeed as his talk. Nevertheless, as soon as his name came up among men in town, the accusation of abnormal viciousness was either made or ...

— Oscar Wilde, Volume 1 (of 2) - His Life and Confessions • Frank Harris

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