posse

UK: /ˈpɒsi/ US: /ˈpɑsi/ ,(pos′ē)

WordReference Random House Learner's Dictionary of American English © 2025

pos•se /ˈpɑsi/   n. [countable]

1. Law a group of people brought together legally to assist a sheriff in an emergency:
   In Westerns the posse rides off after the bank robbers.
2. Slang Terms a group of people associated in some fashion:
   a posse of drug dealers.

WordReference Random House Unabridged Dictionary of American English © 2025

pos•se  (pos′ē), n. 

1. Law See posse comitatus. 
2. Law a body or force armed with legal authority.

• Medieval Latin posse power, force, noun, nominal use of Latin infinitive: to be able, have power, equivalent. to pot- (see potent) + -se infinitive suffix
• 1575–85

Collins Concise English Dictionary © HarperCollins Publishers::

posse / ˈpɒsɪ/ noun

1. Also called: posse comitatus the men of a district assembled together and forming a group upon whom the sheriff may call for assistance in maintaining law and order
2. possibility (esp in the phrase in posse)
3. a Jamaican street gang in the US
4. a group of friends or associates

Etymology: 16th Century: from Medieval Latin (n): power, strength, from Latin (vb): to be able, have power