persecution complex

British

noun

psychol an acute irrational fear that other people are plotting one's downfall and that they are responsible for one's failures

"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

Example Sentences

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persecution complex

He has a tenuous relationship to reality, and increasingly retreats into victimology and a persecution complex.

From Salon ● Aug. 18, 2023

He has a weirdly unbalanced persecution complex about the West.

From Washington Post ● Sep. 29, 2022

Kimble: Someone with a persecution complex needs an opponent — they need to be oppressed by something.

From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 29, 2022

Delusions, psychosis, idées fixes, persecution complex, whatever: To some extent it has always been there.

From New York Times ● Oct. 5, 2021

Quang-ha has a real persecution complex, which is no doubt legitimate.

From "Counting by 7s" by Holly Goldberg Sloan

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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023