anal-retentive

a·nal-re·ten·tive

(ā′nəl-rĭ-tĕn′tĭv)

adj.

Indicating personality traits, such as extreme fastidiousness, stinginess, and obstinacy, supposed by psychoanalytic theory to originate during the anal stage in habits, attitudes, or values associated with infantile pleasure in retention of feces.

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Translations

anal-retentive

adj → analfixiert

Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

References in periodicals archive ?

I am what is described as anal-retentive, and (my house is) filled with my and my family's things accumulated since childhood.

How a bullfrog keeps Jaime Laya awake when it rains

If youre the anal-retentive type who works best on a schedule, either forget farming or learn to loosen up fast.

Diary of a poultry farmer: : Ten habits to grow a poultry start-up

Chances are they will be: (a) Retired; (b) On maternity leave; or (c) that anal-retentive friend of yours who buys all her gifts in the January sales and has them wrapped by September.

Christmas cards still a brilliant tradition - even if they're late!

It's not for neat freaks or the anal-retentive. It's not for those who want to look good in the eyes of people who set the dominant, sick agenda and who reward anyone who supports it.

Minor details: stonewall: the reality that inspires

"It should come as no surprise that the most anal-retentive vampire will have specific thoughts on how to soldier through the finale's tragedies," Plec stated in a TV Guide spoiler (http://www.tvguide.com/News/Mega-Buzz-True-Blood-Once-Spoilers-1085293.aspx) report .

Vampire Diaries Season 6 Spoilers: Caroline Struggles in Keeping Mystic Falls Gang Together, Actress Candice Accola Teases Set Photo with Michael Malarkey

This, you might say, is how directors Lord and Miller (who also made 21 Jump Street and Cloudy With a Chance of Meatballs) manage to live with themselves while making what amounts to a Lego infomercial: the dad's anal-retentive insistence on playing 'properly' is equated with Lord Business' fiendish plan to glue Lego figures down so they can't move, and implicitly equated with Lego's status as a staid corporation -- while the kid's free-form approach to Lego is equated with our hero Emmet's fight for Lego freedom, and implicitly equated with Lord and Miller making something free and zany in the bosom of the corporate beast.

Film review: The Lego Movie ***

What is not brought to the present is an explanation for his anal-retentive habits.

William H. Gass. Middle C

"It's an anal-retentive genome," as Palmer puts it.

Celebrity heir of early flowers is a major gene thief: rare Amborella shrub has captured complete genomes from several other species

Even sillier, the anal-retentive Marcus, who wants Joe to get his GED and become independent, gives Joe an ATM card that allows him to withdraw, and usually gamble away, $100 a day.

Lampson, David. This One Time with Julia

Still, my military service, like that of all soldiers, saw its share of aborted operations, anal-retentive colonels, and idiot corporals.

Old Soldier

This leads to unexpected run-ins with a frigid inhouse lawyer (Guilaine Londez), anal-retentive financial director (Scali Delpeyrat), devious security chief (Wilfried Romoli) and several other nasty members of the all-powerful conglomerate.