Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

Elliott checked and scrolled compulsively, bypassing the parental controls, sneaking down to grab his phone from the family charging unit in the kitchen at night.

From Slate • May 12, 2026

"I'd be compulsively applying it, taking it off, reapplying it, taking it off again - trying to get it as symmetrical and perfect as possible."

From BBC • Feb. 17, 2026

So advisers might raise another topic that tends to jolt even the most compulsively frugal clients: taxes.

From MarketWatch • Oct. 24, 2025

His own style, which is to say his mind, was compulsively metaphorical, gorgeously maximal, enough so to make him worry about “an implicit marvelling at myself as expressor.”

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 10, 2025

Mother often described herself as a pleaser: she said she couldn’t stop herself from speculating what people wanted her to be, and from contorting herself, compulsively, unwillingly, into whatever it was.

From "Educated" by Tara Westover