Obsessed
[əb'sest]
Definition
(adj.) influenced or controlled by a powerful force such as a strong emotion; 'by love possessed' .
Inputed by Huntington--From WordNet
Unserious Contents or Definition
p.p. Vexed by an evil spirit like the Gadarene swine and other critics. Obsession was once more common than it is now. Arasthus tells of a peasant who was occupied by a different devil for every day in the week and on Sundays by two. They were frequently seen always walking in his shadow when he had one but were finally driven away by the village notary a holy man; but they took the peasant with them for he vanished utterly. A devil thrown out of a woman by the Archbishop of Rheims ran through the trees pursued by a hundred persons until the open country was reached where by a leap higher than a church spire he escaped into a bird. A chaplain in Cromwell's army exorcised a soldier's obsessing devil by throwing the soldier into the water when the devil came to the surface. The soldier unfortunately did not.
Checker: Scott
Examples
- He was obsessed with horror of wanton bloodshed and with indignation at the insolence of armed injustice. Walter Libby. An Introduction to the History of Science.
- Any state obsessed by traditions of an aggressive foreign policy will be difficult to assimilate into a world combination. H. G. Wells. The Outline of History_Being a Plain History of Life and Mankind.
Checker: Scott