obsessive

American  

[uhb-ses-iv] / əbˈsɛs ɪv /

adjective

1. being, pertaining to, or resembling an obsession.

   an obsessive fear of illness.

2. causing an obsession.

3. excessive, especially extremely so.

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noun

1. someone who has an obsession or obsessions; a person who thinks or behaves in an obsessive manner.

obsessive British  

/ əbˈsɛsɪv /

adjective

1. psychiatry motivated by a persistent overriding idea or impulse, often associated with anxiety and mental illness

2. continually preoccupied with a particular activity, person, or thing

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noun

1. psychiatry a person subject to obsession

2. a person who is continually preoccupied with a particular activity, person, or thing

Other Word Forms

• nonobsessive adjective
• nonobsessively adverb
• nonobsessiveness noun
• obsessively adverb
• obsessiveness noun

Etymology

Origin of obsessive

First recorded in 1910–15; obsess(ion) + -ive

Example Sentences

He's a massive Steelers fan, a music obsessive, and has played mandolin and guitar in bluegrass and country-rock bands in Brooklyn, Mexico City, Baltimore and Pittsburgh.

From The Wall Street Journal

Professors are subject to obsessive student surveillance and called out for deviations from approved terminology.

From The Wall Street Journal

Last year also happened to be the year I became a full-on snail mail obsessive.

From Salon

Pratt will always be that obsessive guy who is thinking 10 steps ahead.

From Los Angeles Times

But he had his own quirky, even obsessive interests—in all things ancient and Roman, in architecture, and especially in the hybrid ornamental figures known as grotesques.

From The Wall Street Journal

Related Words

• bigoted
• dogmatic
• enthusiastic
• fervent
• frenzied
• impassioned
• narrow-minded
• passionate
• rabid
• single-minded
• stubborn
• violent
• zealous