Other forms: obsessed, obsessing, obsesses
To obsess is to fill somebody's mind so that nothing else gets in. Obsess about it, obsessed with the idea, stop obsessing.
In ordinary use it is loose and often affectionate. In psychiatry an obsession is precise and unwelcome: an intrusive thought the person does not want and cannot stop, which is quite different from an enthusiasm. The Latin means to besiege.
1verbobsessTo fill somebody's mind so that nothing else gets in.
“He's started to obsess about his hair and checks it in every mirror he passes.”
obsess is a preoccupying.
Latin obsidere means to sit before or besiege — ob, before, plus sedere, to sit.
Proto-Indo-European
*sed-
Latin
obsessus
English, today
obsess
Built from
From Latin obsessus, perfect passive participle of obsideō (“sit on or in, remain, besiege”), from ob- (“before”) + sedeō (“to sit”); see sit, session, etc.; compare assess, possess.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA