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Synonyms

fixed idea

American  

noun

  1. a persistent or obsessing idea, often delusional, that can, in extreme form, be a symptom of psychosis.

fixed idea British  

noun

  1. Also: idée fixe.  an idea, esp one of an obsessional nature, that is persistently maintained and not subject to change

"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

Etymology

Origin of fixed idea

First recorded in 1820–30

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.

Getting a new view on someone I had such a fixed idea of who or want he was, and this is a way of understanding that.

From Salon • Jul. 6, 2023

I was interested in having an audience that has a fixed idea of these women’s racial identity.

From Washington Post • Nov. 13, 2021

Over the course of her career, her albums — including those with the trio Pistol Annies — have become looser, more curious, less married to a fixed idea of the genre.

From New York Times • Nov. 6, 2019

“This is my attempt to make sense of the period … weeks and then months that cut loose any fixed idea I had ever had about death, about illness … about the shallowness of sanity.”

From Slate • Jul. 11, 2018

R. M. Renfield, ætat 59.—Sanguine temperament; great physical strength; morbidly excitable; periods of gloom, ending in some fixed idea which I cannot make out.

From "Dracula" by Bram Stoker

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.