Other forms: seized, seizing, seizes
To seize something is to take hold of it fast and hard. A hand shooting out to seize your wrist before you step off the kerb; a gull seizing a chip straight off the table.
From that grip the word spreads in every direction. Armies and rebels seize power, a city, an airport; police and customs seize drugs, cash, a passport, which means take it away by law and keep it. You seize an opportunity, seize the moment, seize on one word in someone's sentence and argue about it for an hour. Feelings seize you too: panic seized him, seized by a fit of coughing. An engine seizes up when the moving parts jam solid, and so do brakes, knees and negotiations. Spelling trap: seize is one of the words that breaks the i-before-e rule.
1verbseizeTo take hold of something suddenly and firmly.
“He seized her arm and pulled her back onto the pavement.”
2verbcaptureTo take control of a place or of power, by force.
“The rebels seized the radio station before dawn.”
3verbconfiscateTo take something away officially, under the law.
“Customs officers seized a tonne of ivory at the port.”
synonyms: confiscate, impound
4verbopportunityTo take an opportunity quickly and eagerly.
“She seized the chance to study abroad for a year.”
5verbovercome(of a strong feeling) to affect someone suddenly.
“Panic seized the crowd when the lights went out.”
6verbmachine(of a machine) to jam and stop working.
“The engine seized after running for an hour without oil.”
Seize began as a legal word, not a physical one. It came through Old French seisir, to take possession of, from an early medieval Latin sacio meaning to lay claim to, and behind that Frankish sakjan — to sue, to bring a legal action. The grip in the modern word started life as a claim in court.
Proto-Germanic
*sakjaną
Frankish
*sakjan — to sue, bring legal action
la-eme
sacio — to lay claim to, appropriate
Old French
seisir — to take possession of; invest (person, court)
Middle English
seisen
English, today
seize
Earlier seise, from Middle English seisen, sesen, saisen, from Old French seisir (“to take possession of; invest (person, court)”), from la-eme sacio (“to lay claim to, appropriate”) (8th century) in the phrase ad propriam sacire, from Old Low Frankish sakjan (“to sue, bring legal action”), from Proto-Germanic sakjaną, sakōną (compare Old English sacian (“to strive, brawl”)), from Proto-Germanic sakaną (compare Old Saxon sakan (“to accuse”), Old High German sahhan (“to bicker, quarrel, rebuke”), Old English sacan (“to quarrel, claim by law, accuse”). Cognate to sake and Latin sāgiō (“to perceive acutely”).
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA