obsessive-compulsive

[ uhb-ses-iv-kuhm-puhl-siv ]

adjective

1. noting or relating to a personality characterized by perfectionism, indecision, conscientiousness, concern with detail, rigidity, and inhibition.
2. Psychiatry. noting or relating to a disorder or neurosis characterized by persistent intrusion of unwanted thoughts (obsessions) or the performance of actions, as repeated hand-washing, that one is unable to stop (compulsions):

   obsessive-compulsive disorder.

noun

1. a person having obsessive-compulsive traits.

Word History and Origins

Origin of obsessive-compulsive¹

First recorded in 1925–30; obsessive ( def ) + compulsive ( def )

Example Sentences

In this case, that mainly includes the earnest David, a digital ad salesman and devoted family man with controlled obsessive-compulsive disorder and a low threshold for embarrassment, the latter of which Benji repeatedly tests.

From Los Angeles Times

More than eight million people in England are taking antidepressants, for depression, anxiety, obsessive-compulsive disorder and other conditions - a million more than five years ago.

From BBC

And if this is indeed “Mr. Monk’s Last Case,” I’d give Tony Shalhoub, who has won three Emmys for playing the detective tormented by obsessive-compulsive disorder, a chance to prevail.

From Los Angeles Times

The same year, they published a case report in Molecular Psychiatry describing autoantibodies against certain cells in the hippocampus, isolated from the CSF of a young woman with obsessive-compulsive disorder.

From Science Magazine

An undiagnosed obsessive-compulsive disorder led him to drink to cope with anxiety — sometimes all 12 beers in his fridge when he intended to have one — and to worry incessantly during the pandemic about germs.

From Seattle Times