1. To dominate or to occupy the thoughts, feelings, or desires of someone; to beset, to trouble, or to haunt persistently or abnormally: Suspicions about his neighbor's honesty obsessed Matthew.
2. To occupy someone's thoughts constantly, compulsively, and exclusively: The desire for revenge about the way she was treated so badly by her fellow workers obsessed Marge's sister for a long time.
3. Etymology: from Latin obsessus, past participle of obsidere, "to besiege, to occupy". Literally, "to sit opposite to", from ob, "against" + sedere "to sit".

Of evil spirits, "to haunt", is from 1540. Obsession was originally (1513), "the act of besieging", then "hostile action of the devil or an evil spirit" (1605). The meaning "persistent influence or idea" is first recorded in 1680.

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