obsession
[uh b-sesh-uh n]
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Origin of obsession
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for obsession
Contemporary Examples
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
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
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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 obsession
n.
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.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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.
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The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
obsession
A preoccupation with a feeling or idea. In psychology, an obsession is similar to a compulsion.
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The New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.