as in staring
to look at or think about something constantly; to give all of your attention to something
—usually + on or upon
The cat was fixated on a small hole in the wall. Why do journalists fixate on scandals?
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Recent Examples of fixating
Parasocially fixating on microcelebrities who want their money.
—
Daniel Kolitz, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
Delivering solid financial growth has become more important than ever for Netflix as management has steered investors from fixating on how many subscribers its service gains from one quarter to the next.
—Fortune Editors, Fortune, 22 Oct. 2025
The trust economics of modern hospitality Although occupancy rates are important business metrics in the hospitality industry, fixating on them shows a misunderstanding of the economics of hospitality in the digital age.
—Ascend Agency, Oc Register, 21 Oct. 2025
Some teams — Stoke in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Brentford now — might find that fixating on long throw-ins works.
—Oliver Kay, New York Times, 16 Oct. 2025
Threat hunts often risk tunnel vision — fixating on a single artifact or path.
—Tony Bradley, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
The trio regrouped with nearly a dozen other musicians in the studio, fixating on improvisation.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Sep. 2025
Some lottery players take their time carefully picking their tickets, fixating on the right set of numbers.
—Daniella Segura, Miami Herald, 24 Mar. 2025
The Ed Gein Story doesn’t want to leave anything to the imagination, but also wants to criticize viewers for fixating on and becoming increasingly desensitized to monstrosities.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Daniel Kolitz, Harpers Magazine, 24 Oct. 2025
Delivering solid financial growth has become more important than ever for Netflix as management has steered investors from fixating on how many subscribers its service gains from one quarter to the next.
—Fortune Editors, Fortune, 22 Oct. 2025
The trust economics of modern hospitality Although occupancy rates are important business metrics in the hospitality industry, fixating on them shows a misunderstanding of the economics of hospitality in the digital age.
—Ascend Agency, Oc Register, 21 Oct. 2025
Some teams — Stoke in the late 2000s and early 2010s, Brentford now — might find that fixating on long throw-ins works.
—Oliver Kay, New York Times, 16 Oct. 2025
Threat hunts often risk tunnel vision — fixating on a single artifact or path.
—Tony Bradley, Forbes.com, 19 Sep. 2025
The trio regrouped with nearly a dozen other musicians in the studio, fixating on improvisation.
—Craig Jenkins, Vulture, 2 Sep. 2025
Some lottery players take their time carefully picking their tickets, fixating on the right set of numbers.
—Daniella Segura, Miami Herald, 24 Mar. 2025
The Ed Gein Story doesn’t want to leave anything to the imagination, but also wants to criticize viewers for fixating on and becoming increasingly desensitized to monstrosities.
—Daniel Fienberg, HollywoodReporter, 3 Sep. 2019
Recent Examples of Synonyms for fixating
Verb
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A lot of these schools are staring at declining enrollments, so money is tight on college campuses.—
Dana Taylor,
USA Today,
11 Nov. 2025
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And then on Thursday, after most of the show had been written, a man collapsed in the Oval Office, generating an instantly meme-able photograph of the president staring into the camera, looking oblivious to efforts to revive the prone victim at stage left.—
Erik Adams,
The Atlantic,
9 Nov. 2025
Verb
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The camera then zooms out to show that the athlete is actually inside of a snow globe, which the pop star has been gazing into and shaking.—
Hannah Dailey,
Billboard,
6 Nov. 2025
-
But gazing at the field of red clay just feet away from his front door gives him the feeling that Charlotte’s growth is climbing on top of him.—
Charlotte Observer,
Charlotte Observer,
3 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
Here, astronomers are gawking at a radio signal that appears crudely on the screen like a crooked game of Pong but turns out to be a line of data repeated every 78 seconds from 600 light-years away.—
Scott Tobias,
Vulture,
7 Nov. 2025
-
But the cringe-comedy antics of the original NBC series landed far better in Season 3 than in Season 1, once audiences began to truly love the characters instead of just gawking at them.—
Kelly Lawler,
USA Today,
3 Sep. 2025
Verb
-
Kenny Chesney walks around office on the 72nd floor of One World Trade Center in New York City, peering out the floor-to-ceiling windows in search of his skyline barometers—the Statue of Liberty, the Brooklyn Bridge and one of his favorite places to perform, MetLife Stadium.—
Mandy Taheri,
MSNBC Newsweek,
4 Nov. 2025
-
This way of peering at screen culture from an inexact distance, which also comes up in a scolding scene where Ethan scrolls aimlessly through something like TikTok, rankles in a play that is otherwise so precise about physical time and space.—
Jackson McHenry,
Vulture,
31 Oct. 2025
Verb
-
Through videos he's forced to send in while trying to stay alive (to take viewers to the frontlines of the dangerous game), the unlikely hero turns delightfully anarchic and winds up getting much of the public watching the show to be on his side.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
6 Nov. 2025
-
Mamdani was seen this past Sunday in the Madison Square Garden upper level watching the Knicks ahead of Election Day on Tuesday.—
Scott Thompson,
FOXNews.com,
6 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
The focus right now is on international expansion, and the company is eyeing real estate in Paris.—
James Manso,
Footwear News,
10 Nov. 2025
-
Democrats are eyeing a special election in a traditionally conservative Tennessee House district as a potential flip opportunity following their victories in races across the country last week.—
Andrew Stanton,
MSNBC Newsweek,
10 Nov. 2025
Verb
-
When Armistice Day became a federal holiday in 1938, many states had already begun observing it.—
Mike Snider,
USA Today,
9 Nov. 2025
-
Health inspectors cited the Sacramento grocery store after observing staff washing raw meat display plates in the preparation sink using handwashing soap and water.—
Sacbee.com,
Sacbee.com,
7 Nov. 2025
Verb
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Hours later, after dodging cow patties the size of dinner plates and gaping holes leading to marmot burrows, the locations are chosen and the traps are set.—
Glenn Zorpette,
IEEE Spectrum,
4 Nov. 2025
-
The team has not ruled out transitioning RHP Mason Miller and/or LHP Adrián Morejón back to the rotation, but that would also open gaping holes in the back of a bullpen that might not have Jason Adam (quad) ready at the start of the season.—
Jeff Sanders,
San Diego Union-Tribune,
2 Nov. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Fixating.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/fixating. Accessed 13 Nov. 2025.
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