possessive
adj.adj. wanting to keep something or someone for yourself and not share. It can describe a person who is very protective of their partner or a word that shows who owns something.
adj. describing a desire to exert control or ownership over others; in a linguistic context, indicating a relationship of ownership or belonging. Often used predicatively to describe behavior or attributively to describe grammatical forms.
He is very possessive of his new car.
The toddler became quite possessive of the shared toys when the other children arrived at the playgroup.
Her possessive nature eventually strained the relationship, as she struggled to allow her partner any degree of social independence or private time.
From Middle French possessif, from Latin possessivus (“of or pertaining to possession”), from possessiō (“possessing”), from possidēre (“to possess”). By surface analysis, possess + -ive.
Often follows a linking verb like 'be' or 'become' when describing personality; precedes the noun in a grammatical context.
He is possessive about his wife.He is possessive of his wife.When describing protective or controlling behavior toward people, 'possessive' typically takes the preposition 'of'.