adjective
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psychiatry motivated by a persistent overriding idea or impulse, often associated with anxiety and mental illness
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continually preoccupied with a particular activity, person, or thing
noun
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psychiatry a person subject to obsession
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a person who is continually preoccupied with a particular activity, person, or thing
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of obsessive
First recorded in 1910–15; obsess(ion) + -ive
Explanation
If you rush to the carwash every time a speck of dust lands on your fender, your friends probably describe you as obsessive about keeping your car clean. In other words, you care way too much about your car's cleanliness. Whenever someone is wild about something to an alarming or unnatural extent, you can say they're obsessive. If you go berserk when your neighbor’s soccer ball lands in your flowerbed, your neighbors might think you’re obsessive about your garden. If there’s a person you think about every moment, night and day, you may be obsessive, or maybe you’re just in love.
Vocabulary lists containing obsessive
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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.
“I was an obsessive TV watcher,” he says.
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 28, 2026
"She formulated a philosophy of art she dubbed 'self-obliteration' based on simple motifs of obsessive repetition and proliferation," according to her website.
From Barron's ● Aug. 27, 2026
But what the Hollywood suits don’t realize is that Kris has been a “Camp Miasma” obsessive since childhood.
From Salon ● Aug. 26, 2026
Bonavia said Jerome had shown a lack of remorse and empathy, had had a recent diagnosis of autism and had sought psychological support to stop him seeking "obsessive and unsuccessful relationships".
From BBC ● Aug. 25, 2026
My life revolves around an obsessive regimen and percentages, and given that I was just in surgery, the risk never seems to go down.
From "Five Feet Apart" by Rachael Lippincott
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
