posse
47
7.5
- noun
- /ˈpɑːseɪ/
- Archaic
:
grupo de voluntarios
- The local residents formed a posse to patrol the area after a series of burglaries.
Examples
-
Well, if I'm not back by morning... you send a posse out after me.
-
One night, a posse gathered and accused William of witchcraft.
-
The sheriff and his posse are here.
-
When Tom heard about that, he fled, and his brother led the posse in the other direction.
Academic text (1997) -
The members of the posse shout: "Stay far from him."
Academic text (2008) -
Then you rustled up a posse and went out to get him.
-
So the Dirtwater sheriff's got himself a posse.
-
There's a posse forming, in case you hadn't heard.
-
After the bank robbery, the sheriff called for a posse to help track down the suspects.
-
In the old western film, the hero rallied a posse to pursue the criminal gang that stole the horses.
Synonyms
∞
2.3
An organized group of people like soldiers or police
702
2.4
A small group of people organized to do one job, like in the army or sports
553
5.8
An organized group of ordinary people who act as soldiers in emergencies
230
2.7
A group of people like police who move through an area to keep it safe
119
5.8
A group of people organized to work or fight together
1
3.0
A small group of police officers who deal with a special kind of crime
A group of local people gathered by a sheriff to catch criminals
Compounds
How Official
Surface Forms
Etymology
Posse comes from the Latin posse meaning 'to be able' and from the old phrase posse comitatus meaning 'power of the county', which named a group the sheriff could call to help. So a posse is a group of people summoned to help keep law and order.