ravishment


Also found in: Thesaurus, Legal, Wikipedia.

rav·ish

 (răv′ĭsh)
tr.v. rav·ished, rav·ish·ing, rav·ish·es
1. To force (another) to have sexual intercourse; rape.
2. To overwhelm with emotion; enrapture: moviegoers who were ravished with delight.
3. Archaic To seize and carry away by force.

[Middle English ravishen, from Old French ravir, raviss-, from Vulgar Latin *rapīre, from Latin rapere, to seize; see rep- in Indo-European roots.]

rav′ish·er n.
rav′ish·ment n.
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.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.ravishment - a feeling of delight at being filled with wonder and enchantment
delectation, delight - a feeling of extreme pleasure or satisfaction; "his delight to see her was obvious to all"
2.ravishment - the crime of forcing a woman to submit to sexual intercourse against her will
date rape - rape in which the rapist is known to the victim (as when they are on a date together)
sex crime, sex offense, sexual abuse, sexual assault - a statutory offense that provides that it is a crime to knowingly cause another person to engage in an unwanted sexual act by force or threat; "most states have replaced the common law definition of rape with statutes defining sexual assault"
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations

ravishment

[ˈrævɪʃmənt] N (liter)
1. (= enchantment) → embeleso m, éxtasis m inv
2. (liter) (= capture) → rapto m, robo m; (= rape) → violación f
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

ravishment

n
(= delight)atemloses Staunen, Hingerissenheit f
(old, liter: = rape) → Schändung f (geh); (obs: = abduction) → Raub m
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 classic literature ?
Thir song was partial, but the harmony (What could it less when Spirits immortal sing?) Suspended Hell, and took with ravishment The thronging audience.
What was in the case of these remarkable persons a ravishment, has, in innumerable instances in common life, been exhibited in less striking manner.
Joseph Sedley, who was fond of music, and soft-hearted, was in a state of ravishment during the performance of the song, and profoundly touched at its conclusion.
All men avail themselves of such means as they can, to add this extraordinary power to their normal powers; and to this end they prize conversation, music, pictures, sculpture, dancing, theatres, travelling, war, mobs, fires, gaming, politics, or love, or science, or animal intoxication,--which are several coarser or finer quasi-mechanical substitutes for the true nectar, which is the ravishment of the intellect by coming nearer to the fact.
Shakespeare builds up the images of pillage, exploits, death, ravishment, tears, groans, and makes children and mothers the victims.
and one could wish that such an Arcadia might have been spared such ravishment. But the needs of the race are insatiable and unceasing." Indeed, they were.
However, he retains the unusually detailed physiological description of Mary's ravishment partially quoted above, and how that may demonstrate bodily the experience of desire for the love of God.
It the female beloved represents Ireland in these poems, the inability to distinguish clearly between "known" and "unknown" lovers suggests dissonance in national identification as well as complicity in the national body's ravishment.
By closely following the remarks of Andre du Laurens, rector of the medical school at Montpellier and physician to Henry IV of France, on the connection between melancholy and poetry contained in his medical treatise Discours de la conservation de la veue (1598), as translated into English by another 'practitioner in phisicke', Richard Surphlet, (56) Burton discusses Problem XXX, 1 and states that Aristotle 'said melancholy men of all others are most witty, which causeth many times a divine ravishment, and a kinde of Enthusiasmus, which stirreth them up to bee excellent Philosophers, Poets, Prophets, &c.'.
Earlier scholars such as Bartolomeo Maranta (who published in 1564) had explicitly associated meraviglia with the epic genre, but Maranta defines the term as a simple aesthetic pleasure; (31) Tasso draws on a newer definition developed by Longinus's early translators, ultimately defining the concept as poetic astonishment or ravishment. In his Italian translation, da Falgano translates ekplexis [astonishment, terror, or paralysis], the Longinian telos of poetry, as meraviglia.