חֲזָקָה f. (חָזַק) 1) taking hold. Y. M. Kat. III, 83ᶜ top (ref. to II Sam. I, 11) אין ח׳ וכ׳ taking hold (of a garment to rend it in mourning) means no less than a hand-breadth of it. —2) (law) taking posssession, posession, usucaption; claim based on undisturbed possession during a legally fixed period. B. Bath. III, 1 חֶזְקַת הבתים וכ׳ the legal period of undisturbed possession (in order to give a title) is for houses … three years. Ib. 29ᵇ (in Chald. diction) אכלית שני ח׳ I had the undisturbed usufruct for the period prescribed by law. Ib. 36ᵃ עבדים יש להם ח׳ does the law of possession apply to slaves?—Ib. אין להם ח׳ לאלתר וכ׳ present possession gives no title (as is the case with inanimate movable chattel), but a possession of three years does. Ib. III, 2 שלש ארצות לח׳ there are in Palestine three districts with different usages of possession. Ib. 3 כל ח׳ שאין וכ׳ possession without a plea (of purchase or any other mode of legal acquisition) gives no title; a. v. fr. —3) presumption, presumptive continuance of an actual condition until evidence of a change is produced; legal status. Ḥull. 9ᵃ בהמה בחייה בחֶזְקַת איסור וכ׳ the anima l when alive, has the status of a forbidden object (v. אֵבֶר), until you ascertain by what means it has been ritually slaughtered; when it is slaughtered הרי היא בח׳ היתר וכ׳ it has the status of a permitted object, until you find out how it became forbidden. Gitt. III, 3 בחזקת שהוא קיים under the presumption that her husband (though sick or old when the messenger was deputed) is alive. Keth. 75ᵇ ח׳ דגופא a presumption as regards physical condition, ח׳ דממונא the fact of possession against which the claimant has to produce satisfactory evidence. Ib. ח׳ אין אדם שותה וכ׳ the presumption is that no man drinks out of a cup without examining (that none will marry without having ascertained the woman’s physical condition). Yeb. 31ᵇ top חזקת בר שטיא the legal status of an insane person’s property; a. v. fr.—Pl. חֲזָקוֹת. Kidd. 80ᵃ סוקלין … מלקין על הח׳ we execute punishment on the basis of actual facts (though not provable by legal evidence, e.g. man and wife and children living together and treating each other as such, are legally considered as being one family), v. חָזַק Hof.—Y. Ḥall. IV, 60ᵃ bot. לח׳ with reference to the local usages of usucaption (Gitt. III, 2, v. supra); a. e.