[siːz], (Verb)

Definitions:
- take hold of suddenly and forcibly
(e.g: she jumped up and seized his arm)

- take (an opportunity) eagerly and decisively
(e.g: he seized his chance to attack as Carr hesitated)

- (of a feeling or pain) affect (someone) suddenly or acutely
(e.g: he was seized by the most dreadful fear)

- strongly appeal to or attract (the imagination or attention)
(e.g: the story of the king's escape seized the public imagination)

- (of a machine with moving parts) become jammed
(e.g: I realized that the mechanism had seized)

- fasten or attach (someone or something) to something by binding with turns of rope
(e.g: Jack was seized to the gun and had his two dozen lashes)


Phrases:
- seize the day

Origin:
Middle English: from Old French seizir ‘give seisin’, from medieval Latin sacire, in the phrase ad proprium sacire ‘claim as one's own’, from a Germanic base meaning ‘procedure’