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Meaning of repossession in English

repossession
noun [ C or U ]
uk
/ˌriː.pəˈzeʃ.ən/ us
/ˌriː.pəˈzeʃ.ən/
(informal repo)
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the act of taking something back, or the thing that is taken back:
house/mortgage repossessions
SMART Vocabulary: related words and phrases
Mortgages & real estate
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(Definition of repossession from the Cambridge Advanced Learner's Dictionary & Thesaurus © Cambridge University Press)

repossession | Business English

repossession
noun
  FINANCE, PROPERTY
uk
/ˌriːpəˈzeʃən/ us
(also informal repo)
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[ C or U ]
the act of repossessing something:
The mortgage market has seen a marked increase in repossessions.
House prices fell and thousands were left facing repossession.
Many banks are accused of being harsh in their repossession policies.
[ C ]
a house that has been taken back by a bank because the owners cannot repay the loan that they took to buy it:
When the house was sold as a repossession, it fetched just £45,000.
(Definition of repossession from the Cambridge Business English Dictionary © Cambridge University Press)

Examples of repossession

repossession
There has been, for example, a massive growth in repossessions since 1979.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
As a result, home ownership is no longer a secure domain and even the middle classes are now at risk of unemployment and repossession.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
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.
From the Cambridge English Corpus
They had their sleep disturbed when the bailiffs took repossession.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
We have had growing unemployment, bankruptcies and mortgage repossessions.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
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.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Between 1989 and 1991, there was an almost fivefold increase—to 75,000—in the number of repossessions.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
He will also be aware that repossessions of homes for mortgage arrears have risen fivefold in the past eight years.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Building society repossession statistics are not available on a regional basis.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
I freely admit that repossession, negative equity and other ills in the housing market have caused much pain in the past few years.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
There was a significant and very welcome reduction in the number of repossession actions initiated in the last quarter of 1991.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
We are talking not just about repossession, but about absolute bankruptcy and the moral degradation that goes with it.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
Even more repossessions have only been avoided because building societies are rescheduling payments, which adds to the problems of negative equity and long-term debt.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
We realise that repossessions are now increasing simply because the breadwinner is out of work.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
They have suffered the grief and anguish of repossession, but it has also had a damaging impact on the housing market.
From the
Hansard archive
Example from the Hansard archive. Contains Parliamentary information licensed under the Open Parliament Licence v3.0
These examples are from corpora and from sources on the web. Any opinions in the examples do not represent the opinion of the Cambridge Dictionary editors or of Cambridge University Press or its licensors.
What is the pronunciation of repossession?
 

Translations of repossession

in Chinese (Traditional)
（在購買者無力償付時）收回，取回（尤指房產）, 被收回的東西…
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in Chinese (Simplified)
（在购买者无力偿付时）收回，取回（尤指房产）, 被收回的东西…
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in Spanish
recuperación…
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in Portuguese
retomada, recuperação…
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repository
repossess
repossessed
repossessing
repossession
repossession order
repost
repot
reprehend

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