double possessive

noun

, Grammar.

1. a possessive construction consisting of a prepositional phrase with of containing a substantive in the possessive case, as of father's in He is a friend of father's.

Example Sentences

The only time you drop the double possessive is when, instead of being involved with an animate being, you are “a lover of the British Museum”, because obviously the British Museum does not - and never can - love you back.

From Literature

I refer to the “double possessive”, which is evidently a perfecdy respectable grammatical construction, but simply jars with me, and perhaps always will.

From Literature

We can now account for what has hitherto puzzled all grammarians, namely, the double possessive.

From Project Gutenberg

Personal pronoun, absolute use of, 63. agreement of, with antecedent, 287. as predicate nominative, 281. case of, 62. compound, or reflexive, 69. uses of, 70. definition of, 59. double possessive of, 64. 'em and them, 62. history of, 61. objective of, for nominative in spoken English, 63, 281. syntax of, 281. table of, 60. triple possessive of, 64. uses of it, 67.

From Project Gutenberg

Case, double possessive, of nouns, 54. of pronouns, 64. forms, number of, in Old and Modern English, 46. nominative, of nouns, 47. of pronouns, 62, 279. objective, of nouns, 48. of pronouns, 66, 279. possessive, of nouns, 49, 278. of pronouns, 63. syntax of, 278.

From Project Gutenberg