obsess
verb /əbˈses/
/əbˈses/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they obsess | /əbˈses/ /əbˈses/ |
| he / she / it obsesses | /əbˈsesɪz/ /əbˈsesɪz/ |
| past simple obsessed | /əbˈsest/ /əbˈsest/ |
| past participle obsessed | /əbˈsest/ /əbˈsest/ |
| -ing form obsessing | /əbˈsesɪŋ/ /əbˈsesɪŋ/ |
- [transitive, usually passive] to completely fill your mind so that you cannot think of anything else, in a way that is not normal
- be obsessed by somebody/something He's obsessed by computers.
- be obsessed with somebody/something She's completely obsessed with him.
- obsess somebody The need to produce the most exciting newspaper story obsesses most journalists.
- [intransitive] obsess (about something) to be always talking or worrying about a particular thing, especially when this annoys other people
- I think you should try to stop obsessing about food.
Word Originlate Middle English (in the sense ‘haunt, possess’, referring to an evil spirit): from Latin obsess- ‘besieged’, from the verb obsidere, from ob- ‘opposite’ + sedere ‘sit’. The current sense dates from the late 19th cent.