Etimology
From Middle English owen, aȝen, from Old English āgen (“own, proper, peculiar”), originally the past participle of āgan; from Proto-West Germanic *aigan (“own”), from Proto-Germanic *aiganaz (“own”), from Proto-Indo-European *h₂eyḱ- (“to have, possess”).
adjective
own (not comparable)
Belonging to; possessed; acquired; proper to; property of; titled to; held in one's name; under/using the name of. Often marks a possessive determiner as reflexive, referring back to the subject of the clause or sentence.
Not shared.
(obsolete) Peculiar, domestic.
(obsolete) Not foreign.
Examples
The fathers shall not bee put to death for the children, neither shall the children be put to death for the fathers: euery man shall be put to death for his owne sinne.
Prospero: Fairely ſpoke ; / Sit then, and talke with her, ſhe is thine owne ;
I corralled the judge, and we started off across the fields, in no very mild state of fear of that gentleman's wife, whose vigilance was seldom relaxed. And thus we came by a circuitous route to Mohair, the judge occupied by his own guilty thoughts, and I by others not less disturbing.
He looked round the poor room, at the distempered walls, and the bad engravings in meretricious frames, the crinkly paper and wax flowers on the chiffonier; and he thought of a room like Father Bryan's, with panelling, with cut glass, with tulips in silver pots, such a room as he had hoped to have for his own.
The dirty secret of the internet is that all this distraction and interruption is immensely profitable. Web companies like to boast about […], or offering services that let you […] "share the things you love with the world" and so on. But the real way to build a successful online business is to be better than your rivals at undermining people's control of their own attention.
When we move into the new house, the kids will each have their own bedroom.
Etimology
A back-formation from owner, owning and own (adjective). Compare Old English āgnian, Dutch eigenen, German eignen, Swedish ägna.
verb
own (third-person singular simple present owns, present participle owning, simple past and past participle owned)
(transitive) To have rightful possession of (property, goods or capital); to have legal title to; to acquire a property or asset.
(transitive) To have recognized political sovereignty over a place, territory, as distinct from the ordinary connotation of property ownership.
(transitive) To defeat or embarrass; to overwhelm.
(transitive) To virtually or figuratively enslave.
(online gaming, slang) To defeat, dominate, or be above, also spelled pwn.
(transitive, computing, slang) To illicitly obtain superuser or root access to a computer system, thereby having access to all of the user files on that system; pwn.
(intransitive, slang) To be very good.
(intransitive) To admit, concede, grant, allow, acknowledge, confess; not to deny.
(transitive) To admit; concede; acknowledge.
(transitive) To proudly acknowledge; to not be ashamed or embarrassed of.
(transitive) To take responsibility for.
(transitive) To recognise; acknowledge.
(transitive) To claim as one's own.
(intransitive, UK dialectal) To confess.
Examples
I own this car.
The United States owns Point Roberts by the terms of the Treaty of Oregon.
I will own my enemies.
If he wins, he will own you.
"TH15 5Y5T3M 15 0WN3D"
I own thy speechless, placeless power; but to the last gasp of my earthquake life will dispute its unconditional, unintegral mastery in me.
For instance, when I flung the cat out of an upper window , I was ready, after a moment's reflection, to own I was wrong, as a gentleman should.
I am sorry to own I began to worry then.
They learned how perfectly peaceful the home could be. And they almost regretted—though none of them would have owned to such callousness—that their father was soon coming back.
Two of those fellows you must know and own.
It must be owned, the good Jocelin, spite of his beautiful childlike character, is but an altogether imperfect 'mirror' of these old-world things!
"Well, I'm not hiding anymore! I'm owning my girly looks with cute short pink hair!"
to own one as a son
Related words
synonyms
(have rightful possession of): to possess, acquire, have to one's name, property of, titled to
(defeat): beat, defeat, overcome, overthrow, vanquish, have, take, best
antonyms
(antonym(s) of "admit"): disown
noun
own (plural owns)
(Internet slang) A crushing insult.
Examples
the amount of bigots that just screenshot my profile thinking it's the biggest own is insane.