Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use compulsive in a sentence

28 example sentences · adjective, noun

Compulsive means uncontrolled or reactive and irresistible. Example: “Jenny is a compulsive liar—don't believe a thing she says.”

Examples of compulsive by meaning

adjectiveUncontrolled or reactive and irresistible.

  • Jenny is a compulsive liar—don't believe a thing she says.

More sentences with compulsive

  • Freddy is a compulsive fondler: he needs the cuddly cat on his lap whenever his lover is out.From the entry fondler
  • Due to somniphobia, Jason has a compulsive habit of getting out of bed and changing his clothes at night.From the entry somniphobia
  • De Rocco, the compulsive rose planter, had surreptitiously placed the rose there.2014, Andrea di Robilant, Chasing the Rose: An Adventure in the Venetian Countryside. From the entry planter
  • He's a compulsive overposter, just like Kent Paul Dolan, over on talk.bizarre!2008 May 23, Bob, “Senator Ted Kennedy has a brain tumor”, in alt.recovery.aa (Usenet). From the entry overposter
  • Compulsive consumption of ice (or pagophagia), for example, is often associated with iron deficiency.2006 May 27, NewScientist, page 54, column 3. From the entry pagophagia
  • Shirley, a 42-year-old married homemaker, presented for evaluation of compulsive hairpulling.2006, Nancy C. Andreasen, Donald W. Black, Introductory textbook of psychiatry. From the entry hairpulling
  • Naturally it's compulsive Banksian reading, with lashings of gore, squalor, poison, torture and philosophy.2003, David Langford, Up Through an Empty House of Stars, page 214. From the entry Banksian
  • "Nonsensification": Senseless associations are concocted as a strategy of confusion, especially by compulsives.1959, J. A. M. Meerloo, “Psychoanalysis as an Experiment in Communication”, in The Psychoanalytic Review, volume 46, number 1, page 80. From the entry nonsensification
  • Wikipedians can be a similarly compulsive and eccentric lot.2010, Joseph M. Reagle Jr., Good Faith Collaboration: The Culture of Wikipedia, Cambridge, M.A.; London: MIT Press, page 157. From the entry editcountitis
  • My automatic reaction was to deal with the anxiety he evoked in me by pathologizing him as paranoid and obsessive compulsive.2009, Joseph G. Ponterotto et al., Handbook of Multicultural Counseling, →ISBN, page 142. From the entry pathologize
  • I once saw Hassett drop England opening batsman and compulsive hooker, Cyril Washbrook, twice in succession at deep fine leg.1990, Ashes: Battles and Bellylaughs, Byron Bay: Swan Publishing, page 32. From the entry hooker
  • I just ended a relationship with a compulsive flirter, after realizing that no one deserved to be treated as I was.1988, Glamour, volume 86, numbers 7-9, page 26. From the entry flirter
  • The center also holds monthly arts and crafts events, where mental health clinicians discuss the signs of compulsive gambling and encourage people to seek help.2026 March 24, Chris Serres, Danny McDonald, Mable Chan, “In Greater Boston’s Asian communities, gambling can build social ties — and fuel…. From the entry arts and crafts
  • It feels like the romantic equivalent of a compulsive overachiever explaining a brief gap on their CV — "Oh, those six months?2024 February 8, Holly Thomas, “Opinion: Why I'm so curious about being 'boysober'”, in CNN, archived from the original on 21 Mar 2024. From the entry unrelationshipped
  • My co-workers and especially my wife were repulsed by the “CrackBerry,” and my compulsive grasping at it, like Gollum with his ring.2023 July 7, Ian Bogost, “What Did People Do Before Smartphones?”, in The Atlantic, Washington, D.C., archived from the original on 07 Jul…. From the entry crackberry
  • They have reported losing interest in a whole range of addictive and compulsive behaviors: drinking, smoking, shopping, biting nails, picking at skin.2023 May 19, Sarah Zhang, “Ozempic’s Next Act”, in The Atlantic. From the entry semaglutide
  • Winston Churchill recalled Joseph Chamberlain as "incomparably the most live, sparkling, insurgent, compulsive figure in British affairs" at the end of the nineteenth century.2016, Peter Marsh, “Did Joseph Chamberlain Really ‘Make the Weather’?”, in I. Cawood, C. Upton, editors, Joseph Chamberlain, →ISBN, page 1. From the entry make the weather
  • The compulsive desire to travel, surely; to reach out for spaces where the serendipity of experience can unfold of itself into a life journey?2010, Megan Speers, “Foreword”, in Wanderlust: A Story Told in 50 Wood Engravings (Graphic Novels; 3), Erin, Ont.: The Porcupine’s Quill…. From the entry wanderlust
  • Today, many researchers believe that compulsive buying should be considered as exhibiting elements of both obsessive-compulsive and impulse-control disorders, calling this theory obsessive-compulsive spectrum disorder.2008 Dec., Nancy M. Ridgway at al., "Doctors advise women not to drink alcohol during pregnancy," vol. 35, no. 4, p. 623. From the entry spectrum disorder
  • These compulsive men – and a handful of equally obsessive ‘femcels’ – have been likened to terrorists, and their forum posts have been unpicked ad nauseam.2020 February 19, Jake Hall, “Investigating the insidious rise of the gay incel”, in Dazed. From the entry unpick
  • The rum punch which has freed me from my oppressive compulsive self the way a balloon lifts its gondola from the earth, was now working the room.2020, Louis A. Coppola, Good Medicine. From the entry ooh-wee
  • It is essential for the compulsive shop-stealer to be charged by police, for the gambler to repay his debts, the violent alcoholic to repair the damaged furniture.2008, William Wilkie, The Home Psychiatrist, page 379. From the entry shop stealer
  • With Reservoir Dogs–like skinny-tie suavitude and fleet fingers on his editing gear, the SF mix-maestro mashes up songs and sights with the smarts of a pop-cultie compulsive.2008 September 17, Kimberly Chun, “No castaways here: We drool over these Treasure Island jewels”, in The San Francisco Bay Guardian…. From the entry suavitude
  • A sequel to The Peter Pan Syndrome (about men who refuse to grow up), this book is filled with information for women who find that they are compulsive motherers.1985 February 2, Tim Broadbent, “Kindred Spirits (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 12, number 28, page 10. From the entry motherer
  • "The compulsive editor, when checking the specs on an article, can't help checking also for such items as initial capital and closing dingbat, if they are used routinely.1982, The Elements of Editing: A Modern Guide for Editors and Journalists, Arthur Plotnik, p.8. From the entry dingbat
  • She has wisely limited her treatment to the British Isles, which contain a sufficient variety of supernatural beings to satisfy the most compulsive collector of arcanities.1977, New Age, page 77. From the entry arcanity
  • Lunacol was developed for the treatment of the astronauts' syndrome, luneurosis, a compulsive desire for water, or aquaphilia, and a wish to swim like a fish.1963, United States Congress, United States Senate, United States Committee on Government Operations, Interagency Coordination in Drug…. From the entry aquaphilia

Meaning of compulsive

  1. adjective Uncontrolled or reactive and irresistible.
  2. adjective Having power to compel; exercising or applying compulsion.
  3. noun One who exhibits compulsive behaviours.

Full definition of compulsive

Questions about compulsive in a sentence

How do you use compulsive in a sentence?
Compulsive is used as an adjective and noun. For example: “Jenny is a compulsive liar—don't believe a thing she says.”
What is a short sentence with compulsive?
“Wikipedians can be a similarly compulsive and eccentric lot.”
What does compulsive mean?
Compulsive means uncontrolled or reactive and irresistible.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: compulsive (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use compulsive in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/compulsive. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.