CAPTIVATING

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does captivating mean? 

• CAPTIVATING (adjective)
  The adjective CAPTIVATING has 1 sense:

1. capturing interest as if by a spell

  Familiarity information: CAPTIVATING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• CAPTIVATING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Capturing interest as if by a spell

Synonyms:

bewitching; captivating; enchanting; enthralling; entrancing; fascinating

Context example:

a fascinating woman

Similar:

attractive (pleasing to the eye or mind especially through beauty or charm)

 Context examples 

To Jane herself, she exclaimed, there could be no possibility of objection; all loveliness and goodness as she is!—her understanding excellent, her mind improved, and her manners captivating.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

They had begun to fail him before he entered the house, and they were quite overcome by the captivating manners of Mrs. Dashwood.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I could only sit down before my fire, biting the key of my carpet-bag, and think of the captivating, girlish, bright-eyed lovely Dora.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

A trifle, perhaps, she's such a captivating little woman I can't help being proud of her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

In love, you will be your most charismatic and captivating.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

The intriguing bright spots and other interesting features of this captivating world will come into sharper focus.

('Bright Spot' on Ceres Has Dimmer Companion, NASA)

Fanny read to herself that it was with infinite concern the newspaper had to announce to the world a matrimonial fracas in the family of Mr. R. of Wimpole Street; the beautiful Mrs. R., whose name had not long been enrolled in the lists of Hymen, and who had promised to become so brilliant a leader in the fashionable world, having quitted her husband's roof in company with the well-known and captivating Mr. C., the intimate friend and associate of Mr. R., and it was not known even to the editor of the newspaper whither they were gone.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I could not unlove him, because I felt sure he would soon marry this very lady—because I read daily in her a proud security in his intentions respecting her—because I witnessed hourly in him a style of courtship which, if careless and choosing rather to be sought than to seek, was yet, in its very carelessness, captivating, and in its very pride, irresistible.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

It was enough to secure his good opinion; for to be unaffected was all that a pretty girl could want to make her mind as captivating as her person.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

One of the captivating children, who seem made to be kissed and cuddled, adorned and adored like little goddesses, and produced for general approval on all festive occasions.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)