anal-retentive

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.
Recent Examples of anal-retentive But there would be no grease-drinking, Judas-playing Sandy without his anal-retentive best friend, Reuben Feffer. Sean Malin, Vulture, 5 Sep. 2024 Conventional management practices suppress everything that isn’t vine by mowing, tilling, and spraying herbicide with an intensity that ranges from anal-retentive to paranoid. Kevin West, Travel + Leisure, 24 July 2024 One might be forgiven for also thinking that the identification is not so much between the audience and the killer as between Fincher, who is known as something of a filmmaking fusspot, and his anal-retentive central character. Michael O'Sullivan, Washington Post, 25 Oct. 2023
Recent Examples of Synonyms for anal-retentive
Adjective
  • Described by family as larger-than-life in personality and stature, the 6-foot-5-inch Wesley is remembered as a jovial, fiercely stubborn man with a quick wit and passion for advocacy.
    Silas Morgan, The Orlando Sentinel, 29 Mar. 2025
  • Happy Birthday for Saturday, March 29, 2025: You are opinionated and stubborn.
    Georgia Nicols, Denver Post, 29 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • This show should finally set the record straight: here is an American visionary whose obsessive paintings are at once stylized and crudely instinctive, achieving a kind of cryptic simplicity that might be called folk surrealism.
    Jeremy Lybarger, ARTnews.com, 26 Mar. 2025
  • That's right, Penn Badgley will return as Joe Goldberg in the fifth and final season of the show about the obsessive young man who goes to extreme lengths to get close to people he becomes transfixed by.
    Daniel R. Depetris, Newsweek, 24 Mar. 2025
Adjective
  • Will Forte, John Cena, Lana Condor and Tone Bell star in the movie, which follows Wile E. Coyote, who, after Acme products fail him one too many times in his dogged pursuit of the Roadrunner, decides to hire a billboard lawyer to sue the Acme Corporation.
    Andreas Wiseman, Deadline, 31 Mar. 2025
  • The dogged detective is played by Peter Eggers, Sweden’s answer to Michael Fassbender (no bad angles), and is directed by Lisa Siwe, director of the OG Nordic thriller series The Bridge (see below).
    Andrea Duncan-Mao, Vulture, 26 Feb. 2025
Adjective
  • Some venues, such as London's fabric, encourage a phone-free environment through guidance rather than strict enforcement.
    John W. Dean, MSNBC Newsweek, 6 Apr. 2025
  • First, monitor how Asian hubs respond to the surprising success of Singapore’s stricter regime - will Hong Kong double down on flexibility or pivot toward stability?
    Francois Botha, Forbes.com, 6 Apr. 2025
Adjective
  • Nobody’s shooting on this season’s Longhorns would be mistaken for Stephen Curry’s, but Schaefer is adamant that this group stands out among his 20-year head-coaching career.
    Ben Pickman, New York Times, 28 Mar. 2025
  • Still, Jenkins was adamant about not moving to the city.
    Kim Velsey, Curbed, 27 Mar. 2025

Browse Nearby Words

Cite this Entry

“Anal-retentive.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/anal-retentive. Accessed 9 Apr. 2025.

Last Updated: - Updated example sentences
Love words? Need even more definitions?

Subscribe to America's largest dictionary and get thousands more definitions and advanced search—ad free!