ownershipn.

1583 A. Golding tr. J. Calvin Serm. on Deuteronomie xxxix. 235 One that hath but onely the laying out of them, and not the ownership of them.

1652 M. Nedham tr. J. Selden (title) Of the dominion, or, ownership of the sea.

1765 W. Blackstone Comm. Laws Eng. (1778) I. 218 The queen is of ability to purchase lands, and to convey them, to make leases, to grant copyholds, and do other acts of ownership, without the concurrence of her lord.

1799–1800 C. B. Brown Arthur Mervyn vii. 64 I must acquaint the lady with the history of this picture, and convince her of my ownership.

1842 M. A. Lower Eng. Surnames (1875) II. App. 156 A nick is the mark cut in the mandible of a swan to distinguish its ownership.

1869 H. Fawcett Man. Polit. Econ. (ed. 3) ii. vi. 179 There are..many collateral advantages associated with the ownership of land.

1929 P. Geddes in Sociol. Rev. 21 7 Of all forms of rural development over Europe, it is the forest which most definitely thrives and prospers under collective ownership.

1956 H. Gaitskell in J. Gould & W. L. Kolb Dict. Social Sci. (1964) 457/2 Public ownership..means the ownership by the community of any property whether individual or not, whether embracing the whole of an industry or only part of it.

1988 Star (Tarrytown, N.Y.) 12 Apr. 2/1 The property..is surrounded by several estates whose ownerships have not changed since the Thirties.

2002 Times 11 Feb. 45/1 BT launches its contentious claim for ownership of hypertext links.

1977 L. H. Gunnemann Shaping of United Church of Christ iv. 95 These committees then brought recommended actions to the floor of the synod, often becoming advocates of the special concerns... In this way the General Synod expressed ‘ownership’ of the work of the agencies.

1983 Christian Sci. Monitor 13 Oct. 16/4 The first step is contributing charitable dollars, which lets us buy into ownership of an issue, so to speak.

1990 New Age Jrnl. Apr. 46/1 Since blacks have been told for hundreds of years that ‘It's a white man's world’, it's not surprising that many feel no particular ‘ownership’ of the environment.

2000 Paper Technol. (Paper Industry Techn. Assoc.) Feb. 3/1 (in figure) The successful start-up is down to well trained and empowered operators who have been given total ownership of the process.

1899 T. Veblen Theory of Leisure Class ii. 23 The practice of seizing women from the enemy as trophies, gave rise to a form of ownership-marriage.

2002 Herald Sun (Melbourne) (Nexis) 19 Oct. 73 There's a never-ending book on how the most unlikely of ownership marriages are conceived.

1979 P. Nihalani et al. Indian & Brit. Eng. 135 Most ownership flats are to be built in the centre of the city.

1997 Southland (N.Z.) Times (Nexis) 14 Oct. 16 The flats were designed to cater for the middle bracket of older people no longer able to maintain their family home or grounds but who would not get enough money from selling them to buy an ownership flat.

1880 Daily News 6 Nov. 5/6 If allowance for ownership votes were made, the majority of voters were with him.

1906 Westm. Gaz. 20 June 7/1 These were the ‘ownership’ voters, which were a scandal of the franchise. The speaker knows of a case where one man had sixty-seven ownership votes.

2002 Sun (Baltimore) 2 Apr. 6 b Owners and tenants of Long Reach lien-paying properties are entitled to vote in the annual elections. One ownership vote and one tenancy vote is allowed per household.