fixation

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. The act or process of fixing or fixating.
2. n. An obsessive preoccupation.
3. n. Psychology A strong attachment to a person or thing, especially such an attachment formed in childhood or infancy and manifested in immature or neurotic behavior that persists throughout life.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. The act of fixing.
2. n. The state of being fixed; a fixed, firm, or stable condition; stability; firmness; steadiness.
3. n. Fixed or certain position or location.
4. n. Specifically The act or process by which a fluid or a gas becomes or is rendered firm or stable in consistency, and evaporation or volatilization prevented, or by which colors are rendered permanent or lasting; specifically, in chem., that process by which a gaseous body becomes fixed or solid on uniting with a solid body.
5. n. Firmness or stableness of consistency; that firm state of a body in which it resists evaporation or volatilization by heat: as, the fixation of gold or other metals.
6. n. Attachment: adhesion: as, various parasites have organs for fixation.
7. n. In psychological and physiological optics, the act or process of directing the eyes upon some object, and of maintaining this direction during the time required for observation; the bringing of a retinal image into and holding it upon the area of direct vision.

Wiktionary

1. n. The act of fixing, or the state of being fixed or fixated.
2. n. The act of uniting chemically with a solid substance or in a solid form; reduction to a non-volatile condition; -- said of gaseous elements.
3. n. The act or process of ceasing to be fluid and becoming firm.
4. n. In metals, a state of resistance to evaporation or volatilization by heat.
5. n. A state of mind involving obsession with a particular person, idea, or thing.
6. n. law Recording a creative work in a medium of expression for more than a transitory duration, thereby satisfying the "fixation" requirement for the purposes of copyright law.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. The act of fixing, or the state of being fixed.
2. n. The act of uniting chemically with a solid substance or in a solid form; reduction to a non-volatile condition; -- said of gaseous elements.
3. n. The act or process of ceasing to be fluid and becoming firm.
4. n. A state of resistance to evaporation or volatilization by heat; -- said of metals.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. an abnormal state in which development has stopped prematurely
2. n. an unhealthy and compulsive preoccupation with something or someone
3. n. the activity of fastening something firmly in position
4. n. (histology) the preservation and hardening of a tissue sample to retain as nearly as possible the same relations they had in the living body