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.

  • transitive verb archaic To besiege; to beset.
  • transitive verb To excessively preoccupy the thoughts or feelings of; to haunt the mind persistently.
  • intransitive verb To be excessively or persistently preoccupied with something; -- usually used with on or over.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • verb passive To be preoccupied with a single topic or emotion.
  • verb transitive To dominate the thoughts of someone.
  • verb intransitive, colloquial To think or talk 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

[Latin obsidēre, obsess-, to beset, occupy : ob-, on; see ob– + sedēre, to sit; see sed- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin obsessus, perfect passive participle of obsideō ("sit on or in, remain, besiege"), from ob ("before") + sedeō ("I sit"); see sit, session, etc.; compare assess, possess.

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