Compelled vs Obsessed - What's the difference?
compelled | obsessed |
(compel)
(transitive, archaic, literally) To drive together, round up (rfex)
To overpower; to subdue.
* 1917 , , King Coal , ch. 16,
To force, constrain or coerce.
* 1600 , , Julius Caesar , act 5, sc. 1,
* Hallam
To exact, extort, (make) produce by force.
* Shakespeare
* 1912 , , Sky Island , ch. 14,
(obsolete) To force to yield; to overpower; to subjugate.
* Dryden
* Tennyson
(obsolete) To gather or unite in a crowd or company.
* Dryden
(obsolete) To call forth; to summon.
* Spenser
(obsess)
Influenced or controlled by evil spirits, but less than possessed in that the spirits do not actually reside in the victim.
*E. W. Sprague, 1915 , Spirit Obsession Or a False Doctrine & A Menace to Modern Spiritualism , page 86, ISBN 0766140725.
*:Believing that an evil spirit is trying to obsess' one is a dangerous belief, and when one comes to believe he is ' obsessed by an evil spirit, though there is not an evil spirit within a thousand miles of him, he will have all the symptoms.
*2007 , James E. Padgett, The Teachings of Jesus , page 100, ISBN 1430303913.
*:It is true, that by the workings of the law of attraction, and the susceptibility of mortals to the influence of spirit powers, mortals may become obsessed by the spirits of evil...
*2010 , Joseph Agbi, Living in God's Kingdom , page 71, ISBN 1612154107.
*:What of demon possession, whereby a person is not only obsessed or oppressed by evil spirits, but these spirits actually reside in such a person?
Intensely preoccupied (with) or (by) a given topic or emotion; driven by a specified obsession.
* 1997 , Philip Roth, American Pastoral :
* 1999 , Mark Lawson, The Guardian , 28 Jun 1999:
* 2007 , Thomas Pynchon, Against the Day :
As verbs the difference between compelled and obsessed
is that compelled is (compel) while obsessed is (obsess).As an adjective obsessed is
intensely preoccupied (with) or (by) a given topic or emotion; driven by a specified obsession.compelled
English
Verb
(head)compel
English
Verb
- She had one of those perfect faces, which irresistibly compel the soul of a man.
- Logic compels''' the wise, while fools feel '''compelled by emotions.
- Against my will, / As Pompey was, am I compell’d to set / Upon one battle all our liberties.
- Wolsey compelled the people to pay up the whole subsidy at once.
- Commissions, which compel from each / The sixth part of his substance.
- The Queen has nothing but the power to execute the laws, to adjust grievances and to compel order.
- Easy sleep their weary limbs compelled .
- I compel all creatures to my will.
- in one troop compelled
- She had this knight from far compelled .
- (Chapman)
Derived terms
* compellable * compeller * compelling * compellation * compel testimonyReferences
* * * Random House Webster’s Unabridged Electronic Dictionary , 1987-1996. English control verbs English transitive verbsobsessed
English
Verb
(head)Adjective
(en adjective)- What was starting to unsettle him, to frighten him, was the idea that Merry was less horrified now than curious, and soon he himself became obsessed , though not, like her, by the self-immolators in Vietnam but by the change of demeanor of his eleven-year-old.
- Strangely, although it is an international cliché that the British are obsessed with the weather, it is a fixation with minor irritations: will rain spoil the wedding, the Test Match, the bank holiday?
- Everyone lay around in a sort of focused inertia, drinking, handing cigarettes back and forth, forgetting with whom, or whether, they were supposed to be romantically obsessed .
