from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
- intransitive v. Psychology To manifest or experience perseveration.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
- v. describing the behavior, generally displayed by those with various developmental disabilities, of extraordinary, exclusive and lasting obsession to a detail or occurrence others consider minor.
- v. to repeat or continue a pattern.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- v. psychology: repeat a response after the cessation of the original stimulus
This propensity to perseverate is sometimes self-destructive, as when I am unable to stop practicing a single piece on the piano or to quit solitaire, but
"Journalists" seeking to perseverate the entire "controversy" by asking him if he thinks it will continue to be a distraction?
On the medicine, he says he was able to fully shift his attention from one situation to the next rather than perseverate on a previous conversation, and could plan what he was going to do next rather than get distracted by a phone call and forget what he was doing.
Uneasiness may perseverate, developing into intractable feelings that seem insurmountable.
We perseverate instead, and cannot resolve the conflict or make decisions.
Hopefully, having written this will discharge my need to perseverate over book covers—at least until the next installment of Jacket Whys sets me off again….
If an acquaintance ruffles you, you walk away and mutter "jerk" under your breath, then forget about it; if an intimate hurts you, you perseverate on the offense forever.
And I'm not going to perseverate —or proliferate any programmatic perorations — about the proper spelling of "doughnut."
One might suggest that the babies in the non-social condition were less likely to perseverate because they were less interested in the game and just didn't learn the connection between the ball and Bucket 1 as well.
Will be able to keep us in war endlessly because he is the kind of person who will perseverate