INFATUATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does infatuate mean? 

• INFATUATE (verb)
  The verb INFATUATE has 1 sense:

1. arouse unreasoning love or passion in and cause to behave in an irrational way

  Familiarity information: INFATUATE used as a verb is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• INFATUATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they infatuate    ... he / she / it infatuates   
Past simple: infatuated   
Past participle: infatuated   
-ing form: infatuating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Arouse unreasoning love or passion in and cause to behave in an irrational way

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Context example:

love has infatuated her

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

arouse; elicit; enkindle; evoke; fire; kindle; provoke; raise (call forth (emotions, feelings, and responses))

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

infatuation (an object of extravagant short-lived passion)

infatuation (a foolish and usually extravagant passion or love or admiration)

infatuation (temporary love of an adolescent)

 Context examples 

And to her, just then, he was the hurt child, the infatuated man striving to achieve the impossible.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I shuddered to hear the infatuated assertion.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Under this infatuating principle, counteracted by no real affection for her sister, it was impossible for her to aim at more than the credit of projecting and arranging so expensive a charity; though perhaps she might so little know herself as to walk home to the Parsonage, after this conversation, in the happy belief of being the most liberal-minded sister and aunt in the world.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)