Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- intransitive verb To preoccupy the mind of (someone) excessively.
- intransitive verb To have the mind excessively preoccupied with a single emotion or topic.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To besiege; beset; compass about.
- To attack, vex, or plague from without, as an evil spirit. See
obsession , 2.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- intransitive verb To be excessively or persistently preoccupied with something; -- usually used with on or over.
- transitive verb archaic To besiege; to beset.
- transitive verb To excessively preoccupy the thoughts or feelings of; to haunt the mind persistently.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb passive To be
preoccupied with a singletopic oremotion . - verb transitive To
dominate thethoughts of someone. - verb intransitive, colloquial To
think ortalk obsessively about.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb haunt like a ghost; pursue
- verb be preoccupied with something
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Ah, hell, I obsess from the moment something is completed.
Amazon shorts, reviews and weekends deep_bluze 2005
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The word obsess showed up in English straight out of Classical Latin back in 1440.
podictionary - for word lovers - dictionary etymology, trivia & history 2009
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Speaking of what people think, this morning Obama is saying that people "obsess" too much on what he says.
Reporter To Wolfson: What Does Hillary Think Of Bill's Pardons Of Weather Underground Members? 2009
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So, can you now get another issue to "obsess" about?
Election Central | Talking Points Memo | Edwards Doesn't Promise To Support Hillary As The Nominee 2009
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Besorge, I do not "obsess", it is you that is obsession of dialectics, words,etc...
Is Economics a Science? John M 2009
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Which means if you think a marginalised person is too obsessed or too emotional or angry or taking it all too personally and it bothers you then work towards a world that doesn't FORCE them to 'obsess' or that doesn't hurt or anger them.
A Spark of Wisdom: Ignoring or not being emotionally affected by marginalisation is a privilege. Renee 2009
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So, can you now get another issue to "obsess" about?
Edwards Doesn't Promise To Support Hillary As The Nominee 2009
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Which means if you think a marginalised person is too obsessed or too emotional or angry or taking it all too personally and it bothers you then work towards a world that doesn't FORCE them to 'obsess' or that doesn't hurt or anger them.
Archive 2009-11-01 Renee 2009
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I'm off to "obsess" about race and gender at a conference about honoring the "obsession" with race and gender.
"Adventures in Identity Politics." Ann Althouse 2008
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And if you think Mr. Lott has been silent for the last four years, Tim Grieve has a collection of some of the Gentleman from Mississippi's bon mots: Lott on Iraq: After declaring that Senate Republicans and "real people out there in the world" don't "obsess" about Iraq like reporters do, Lott said in September that he doesn't understand why Sunnis and Shiites are fighting each other anyway.
November 2006 2006
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