obsession
Origin of obsession
Related Words for obsession
phobia, fascination, delusion, mania, passion, infatuation, enthusiasm, compulsion, preoccupation, phantom, case, monkey, attraction, hang-up, fancy, crush, thing, complex, fetish, neurosisExamples from the Web for obsession
Contemporary Examples of obsession
Nicki treats the obsession with her pop ambitions as an irrelevant, surface-level irritation.
You write about your obsession with sneakers—why do you think so many young men are into sneakers?
What started out as a genuine interest in becoming healthier quickly developed into an obsession.
From Janay Rice to Christy Mack to Rihanna, our obsession with celebrity victims has reached an all-time high.
The Unauthorized Story seemed to make that latter question hard to answer, our obsession hard to defend.
Historical Examples of obsession
He clasped his head in his hands and strove to clear his mind for a moment from obsession.
VivietteWilliam J. Locke
It haunted me; it was an obsession and a perpetual nightmare.
My Double LifeSarah Bernhardt
As I drudged on down there in the warehouse, my bitterness became an obsession.
The HarborErnest Poole
But naturally Peter did not confide his obsession to Lalkhan.
Jan and Her JobL. Allen Harker
Paula looked appealingly at Bell, but he had become a man with an obsession.
obsession
- psychiatry a persistent idea or impulse that continually forces its way into consciousness, often associated with anxiety and mental illness
- a persistent preoccupation, idea, or feeling
- the act of obsessing or the state of being obsessed
Word Origin and History for obsession
1510s, "action of besieging," from French obsession and directly from Latin obsessionem (nominative obsessio) "siege, blockade, a blocking up," noun of action from past participle stem of obsidere "to besiege" (see obsess). Later (c.1600), "hostile action of an evil spirit" (like possession but without the spirit actually inhabiting the body). Transferred sense of "action of anything which engrosses the mind" is from 1670s. Psychological sense is from 1901.
obsession
(əb-sĕsh′ən, ŏb-)- Compulsive preoccupation with an idea or an unwanted feeling or emotion, often accompanied by symptoms of anxiety.
- A compulsive, often unreasonable idea or emotion.
obsession
A preoccupation with a feeling or idea. In psychology, an obsession is similar to a compulsion.