Obsessed
adj, verb
adj, verb ·2 syllables ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
Verb
- 1 simple past and past participle of obsess form-of, participle, past
Adjective
- 1 Intensely preoccupied with or by a given topic or emotion; driven by a specified obsession.
"What was starting to unsettle him, to frighten him, was the idea that Merry was less horrified now than curious, and soon he himself became obsessed, though not, like her, by the self-immolators in Vietnam but by the change of demeanor of his eleven-year-old."
- 2 Influenced or controlled by evil spirits, but less than possessed in that the spirits do not actually reside in the victim.
"Believing that an evil spirit is trying to obsess one is a dangerous belief, and when one comes to believe he is obsessed by an evil spirit, though there is not an evil spirit within a thousand miles of him, he will have all the symptoms."
Adjective
- 1 having or showing excessive or compulsive concern with something wordnet
- 2 influenced or controlled by a powerful force such as a strong emotion wordnet
Example
More examples"The man was obsessed with fear that the secret might be disclosed."
Related phrases
More for "obsessed"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.