How to Use compulsive in a Sentence

compulsive

adjective
Definition of compulsivenext
Synonyms for compulsivenext
  • Film noir tends to be about two things: compulsive love and the crimes that get in the way of it.
    — Owen Gleiberman, Variety, 21 Jan. 2024
  • Greene was a compulsive gambler who shrugged off the loss of pot loads of money.
    — Carlos De Loera, Los Angeles Times, 31 Dec. 2023
  • The key signs of CHS are regular pot use and compulsive bathing.
    — Molly Sullivan, Sacramento Bee, 21 Feb. 2024
  • Keep your crabby comments and compulsive shopping on the down-low — at least for those 10 days.
    — Elizabeth Gulino, refinery29.com, 20 Oct. 2023
  • This sent me on a search to find the answers to two questions: Why are some people compulsive talkers?
    — Dan Lyons, Time, 19 Jan. 2023
  • Some of you may wonder how my wife puts up with living with a compulsive punster.
    — Richard Lederer, San Diego Union-Tribune, 5 Mar. 2022
  • There were the compulsive purchases on QVC of beauty products that weren’t in short supply around the house.
    — Greg Swatek, baltimoresun.com, 17 May 2021
  • But your wife’s compulsive smartphone use seems beyond the point of reason.
    — Annie Lane, oregonlive, 26 June 2021
  • Not everything has to be Rick and Morty; hell, even Rick and Morty’s compulsive meta-commentary can be too much.
    — Dani Di Placido, Forbes, 25 Jan. 2023
  • To compensate for these feelings, some of us may make a compulsive purchase in order to self-soothe.
    — Taayoo Murray, Essence, 4 Dec. 2023
  • Darcy takes on topics like consumerist malaise, the loneliness of compulsive scrolling, and the constant threat of war.
    — Rob Sheffield, Rolling Stone, 6 Apr. 2022
  • But please be aware that compulsive gambling is an addiction, and your fiance could fall off the wagon at any time.
    — Abigail Van Buren, oregonlive, 12 July 2023
  • Technology has raised the stakes for those with compulsive habits.
    — David A. Lieb, The Enquirer, 7 Sep. 2023
  • Checking off all the best qualities of a toiletry bag, this Calpak case works for even the most compulsive over-packer.
    — Jacqueline Saguin, Good Housekeeping, 19 Aug. 2022
  • And in some cases, nose-picking can become a compulsive habit, like biting your nails.
    — Sara Novak, Discover Magazine, 4 Mar. 2023
  • For as long as nail artist Alyssa Blake Nader, a.k.a. @daddydoesnails, can remember, compulsive skin picking has been in the picture.
    — Martine Thompson, Los Angeles Times, 14 Nov. 2022
  • For some, the constant cycle of gifts and discounts have also swayed them to increase their compulsive shopping.
    — Angela Yang, NBC News, 11 June 2023
  • This disorder consists of the compulsive eating of non-food items, like grass or rocks, according to Great Pet Care.
    — Daryl Perry, USA TODAY, 29 July 2022
  • All of my life I’ve been afflicted with compulsive honesty.
    — J. Shannon Roe, The Christian Science Monitor, 16 Sep. 2021
  • But if their parties were legendary, so was their compulsive need to exert control.
    — Washington Post, 23 Mar. 2022
  • Coltrane the compulsive seeker was never quite satisfied with his own sound.
    — Jeff MacGregor, Smithsonian Magazine, 5 Jan. 2024
  • And then your behavior can be so frenetic and compulsive that people are like, what is wrong with that person?
    — Jennifer Maas, Variety, 4 Sep. 2022
  • Is there some compulsive reason Seth can't stop talking about women?
    — Jodi Walker, EW.com, 10 Jan. 2022
  • For decades, Grant, a compulsive sketcher, kept hundreds of explicit drawings—scribbled on the backs of paper scraps and grocery lists—out of the public eye.
    — Anna Russell, The New Yorker, 10 Oct. 2022
  • Michael Jordan, a compulsive gambler who didn’t always pay off his losses, left the NBA in mid-career for one year, 1993, to play minor-league baseball.
    — Scott Ostler, San Francisco Chronicle, 1 Aug. 2021
  • In truth, Steve Belkin was a compulsive collector of frequent flyer miles, amassing more than 40 million miles over two decades.
    — Susan Glaser, cleveland, 23 Sep. 2021
  • These are the questions that both the recovering compulsive buyer and the ecologist ask themselves.
    — Elsa Keslassy, Variety, 16 Jan. 2023
  • The fruits of Diop’s compulsive labor are laid bare in her beguiling narrative debut.
    — Lovia Gyarkye, The Hollywood Reporter, 7 Sep. 2022
  • But there’s another dimension of the fear of the compulsive mental creativity revealed by dreams—the moral fear.
    — Michael W. Clune, Harper’s Magazine , 16 Mar. 2022
  • The brain science behind compulsive social media use is clear.
    — John Brandon, Forbes, 20 June 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'compulsive.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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