ENCHANT

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does enchant mean? 

• ENCHANT (verb)
  The verb ENCHANT has 3 senses:

1. hold spellbound

2. attract; cause to be enamored

3. cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something

  Familiarity information: ENCHANT used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• ENCHANT (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they enchant    ... he / she / it enchants   
Past simple: enchanted   
Past participle: enchanted   
-ing form: enchanting   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Hold spellbound

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

delight; enchant; enrapture; enthral; enthrall; ravish; transport

Hypernyms (to "enchant" is one way to...):

delight; please (give pleasure to or be pleasing to)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The good news will enchant her

Antonym:

disenchant (free from enchantment)

Derivation:

enchantment (a magical spell)

enchantment (a psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Attract; cause to be enamored

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

becharm; beguile; bewitch; captivate; capture; catch; charm; enamor; enamour; enchant; entrance; fascinate; trance

Context example:

She captured all the men's hearts

Hypernyms (to "enchant" is one way to...):

appeal; attract (be attractive to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "enchant"):

hold (hold the attention of)

work (gratify and charm, usually in order to influence)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to enchant Sue

Derivation:

enchantment (a feeling of great liking for something wonderful and unusual)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bewitch; enchant; glamour; hex; jinx; witch

Hypernyms (to "enchant" is one way to...):

becharm; charm (control by magic spells, as by practicing witchcraft)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "enchant"):

voodoo (bewitch by or as if by a voodoo)

spell (place under a spell)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

enchanter (a sorcerer or magician)

enchantment (a magical spell)

enchantment (a psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation)

 Context examples 

This is a magical, enchanting aspect.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

My brother and sister will be enchanted with this place.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Now the white snake was an enchanted princess; and she was very glad to see him, and said, Are you at last come to set me free?

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Never was she so enchanting as at this time, when she recalled the sunshine of her smiles and spent them upon us.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

What a form she had, what a face she had, what a graceful, variable, enchanting manner!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

To Jo's lively fancy, this fine house seemed a kind of enchanted palace, full of splendors and delights which no one enjoyed.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

That afternoon lapsed in peace and harmony; and in the evening Bessie told me some of her most enchanting stories, and sang me some of her sweetest songs.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

After this the enchanted axe cut off my arms, one after the other; but, nothing daunted, I had them replaced with tin ones.

(The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum)

One had to pinch oneself to be sure that one was awake as one heard this sane and practical Professor in cold measured tones describing the monstrous three-eyed fish-lizards and the huge water-snakes which inhabit this enchanted sheet of water.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

For I would have you give an hour or two a day whilst you are with us in discoursing with my daughter, the Lady Maude; for she is somewhat backward, I fear, and hath no love for letters, save for these poor fond romances, which do but fill her empty head with dreams of enchanted maidens and of errant cavaliers.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)