possessed by

1. Driven by, obsessed with, as in He was possessed by the idea of becoming a millionaire. This idiom employs possess in the sense of “dominate one's thoughts or ideas,” a usage dating from the late 1500s.

Example Sentences

“Fights, Camera, Action” features an excerpt of a 1988 interview with the woman whose toaster is allegedly possessed by Satan, featured on the “Today” show.

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“Our ancestors were driven here by destiny, possessed by urgent and fiery conviction, by burning belief, devoted to their cause and their God.”

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He’s filthy, his white shirt is covered in blood, and Berta can’t tell if he’s possessed by the devil or out of his mind.

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At the helm was Osbourne, who channeled the darker forces within this music with hypnotic wild-child abandon, as if he were possessed by the hellfire spirit.

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That system has entrenched a dangerous double standard, creating perverse incentives for the proliferation of world-destroying weaponry, already possessed by nine countries.

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