compulsive
[kuh m-puhl-siv]
- compelling; compulsory.
- Psychology.
- pertaining to, characterized by, or involving compulsion: a compulsive desire to cry.
- governed by an obsessive need to conform, be scrupulous, etc., coupled with an inability to express positive emotions.
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- Psychology. a person whose behavior is governed by a compulsion.
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Origin of compulsive
1595–1605; obsolete compulse v. (< Latin compuls(us), past participle of compellere; see compulsion) + -ive
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for compulsively
Contemporary Examples
Prisoners there became severely depressed: some began to compulsively mutilate themselves; others attempted suicide.
Have you been compulsively checking to see if white smoke has billowed from the Sistine Chapel yet?
Put aside Santorum, who compulsively froths, and Romney who (to reverse a Hebrew saying) is always a weathervane, never a compass.
I came across this book in high school, and read it compulsively.
The compulsively aggressive Australian is a great businessman, writes press baron and Rupert frenemy Conrad Black.
Historical Examples
She is spotless, obsessively purgatory, and compulsively tidy.
After the RainSam Vaknin
I compulsively tell friends and strangers about things that I like.
Down and Out in the Magic KingdomCory Doctorow
Neither State nor National Government is dependent one upon the other, he said; neither can act "compulsively" upon the other.
The Life of John Marshall Volume 4 of 4Albert J. Beveridge
Other women might compulsively finish concealing themselves before snatching up the gun.
The Old Die RichHorace Leonard Gold
compulsive
- relating to or involving compulsion
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- psychiatry an individual who is subject to a psychological compulsion
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for compulsively
compulsive
adj.
c.1600, from French compulsif, from Latin compulsus, past participle of compellere (see compel). Psychological sense is from 1902. As a noun, attested from 1630s; psychological sense from 1957. Related: Compulsively; compulsiveness.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
compulsive
(kəm-pŭl′sĭv)- Caused or conditioned by compulsion or obsession.
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- A person with behavior patterns governed by a compulsion.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.