▪ I. obsess, v.
(əbˈsɛs)
Also 6 erron. obcess.
[f. L. obsess-, ppl. stem of obsidēre to sit at or opposite to, sit down before, besiege, occupy, possess, f. ob- (ob- 1 a, b) + sedēre to sit. Cf. obs. F. obsesser (16th c. in Godef.).
The word appears to have become obsolete early in 18th c, and to have been revived in 19th: cf. obsession.]
† 1. trans. To sit down before (a fortress, the enemy); to besiege, invest. Obs.
| 1503 in Ellis Orig. Lett. Ser. i. I. 53 Parties so to be besegied, troubled, or obsessed by the said Turke. 1534 Whitinton Tullyes Offices ii. (1540) 97 These that be besyeged or obcessed of their enemyes. 1647 Wharton Bellum Hybern. Wks. (1683) 254 The People of that Country shall be obsessed, or besieged, they shall not dare to go out of their Towns. |
2. Of an evil spirit: To beset, assail, or harass (a person); to haunt; to move or actuate from without.
| 1540–1 Elyot Image Gov. 54 b, I omyt to speake of the confession of dyuels, which..were cast out of people, which were obsessed. 1616 Bullokar Eng. Expos. s.v., A man is said to be obsest, when an euill spirit followeth him, troubling him at diuers times and seeking opportunity to enter into him. 1718 F. Hutchinson Witchcraft 70 The Spirits obsess, haunt and dog them. 1827–45 Sir H. Taylor Isaac Comnenus ii. iv, Which saint is most powerful for freeing the demoniacs? Exorcist. That is..according as they are obsessed or possessed. |
3. transf. To beset, assail, or harass like a besieging force or an evil spirit; in modern use esp. to haunt and trouble as a ‘fixed idea’.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. ii. iv, Where maiestie approcheth to excesse, and the mynde is obsessed with inordinat glorie. 1648 Petit. East. Assoc. 28 You are..Army-piniond and obsessed with Sectaries. 1885 F. W. H. Myers in Fortn. Rev. XXXVIII. 643 The subject..felt the hypnotiser's will obsessing him. 1894 Speaker 28 Apr. 480/2 The extent to which political problems are obsessing men's minds. 1899 Howells in Literature 3 June 578 The spirit of war seems to have obsessed our periodical literature. |
Hence obsessed (-ˈsɛst) ppl. a.; obˈsessing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1623 Cockeram, Obsest, one possesst with a spirit. 1665 Needham Med. Medicinæ 409 To the obsessing and distressing of those two most noble Vital Instruments of the Body. 1845 G. Oliver Coll. Biog. Soc. Jesus 75 His fame for dispossessing obsessed persons becoming notorious. |
▪ II. † obˈsess, n. Obs. rare—1.
[f. prec. vb., or L. type *obsessus.]
An investment, siege, blockade.
| 1694 Motteux Rabelais v. 250 Obsesses [F. obsidion], Storms and Fights Sanguinolent. |