0 the act of taking something back, or the thing that is taken back:
1 the act of repossessing something:
2 a house that has been taken back by a bank because the owners cannot repay the loan that they took to buy it:
There has been, for example, a massive growth in repossessions since 1979.
As a result, home ownership is no longer a secure domain and even the middle classes are now at risk of unemployment and repossession.
The first person gets the car by repossessing it when the owner stops making payments (and the sale contract allowed for repossession); the second steals it.
They had their sleep disturbed when the bailiffs took repossession.
We have had growing unemployment, bankruptcies and mortgage repossessions.
This country's unemployment is rising to record levels; we have record bankruptcies, rising poverty and record house repossessions; we have record and rising crime too.
Between 1989 and 1991, there was an almost fivefold increase—to 75,000—in the number of repossessions.
He will also be aware that repossessions of homes for mortgage arrears have risen fivefold in the past eight years.
