RAVISH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does ravish mean? 

• RAVISH (verb)
  The verb RAVISH has 2 senses:

1. force (someone) to have sex against their will

2. hold spellbound

  Familiarity information: RAVISH used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAVISH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they ravish    ... he / she / it ravishes   
Past simple: ravished   
Past participle: ravished   
-ing form: ravishing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Force (someone) to have sex against their will

Classified under:

Verbs of political and social activities and events

Synonyms:

assault; dishonor; dishonour; outrage; rape; ravish; violate

Context example:

The woman was raped on her way home at night

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

assail; assault; attack; set on (attack someone physically or emotionally)

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

gang-rape (rape (someone) successively with several attackers)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to ravish the prisoners

Derivation:

ravisher (someone who assaults others sexually)

ravishment (the crime of forcing a person to submit to sexual intercourse against his or her will)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Hold spellbound

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

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

Hypernyms (to "ravish" 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 ravish her

Derivation:

ravishment (a feeling of delight at being filled with wonder and enchantment)

 Context examples 

"It's for Belle, of course, George always sends her some, but these are altogether ravishing," cried Annie, with a great sniff.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Your hours will pass in dread and misery, and soon the bolt will fall which must ravish from you your happiness for ever.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

At Weymouth and at Portland they have murdered and ravished.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

He could scarcely hear what it said, so ravished was he, though he controlled his face, for he knew that Mr. Higginbotham's ferret eyes were fixed upon him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

And the pocket-book was again deliberately produced, opened, sought through; from one of its compartments was extracted a shabby slip of paper, hastily torn off: I recognised in its texture and its stains of ultra-marine, and lake, and vermillion, the ravished margin of the portrait-cover.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

And being no stranger to the art of war, I gave him a description of cannons, culverins, muskets, carabines, pistols, bullets, powder, swords, bayonets, battles, sieges, retreats, attacks, undermines, countermines, bombardments, sea fights, ships sunk with a thousand men, twenty thousand killed on each side, dying groans, limbs flying in the air, smoke, noise, confusion, trampling to death under horses’ feet, flight, pursuit, victory; fields strewed with carcases, left for food to dogs and wolves and birds of prey; plundering, stripping, ravishing, burning, and destroying.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Your head is all I could ask, for that white bonnet with the rose is quite ravishing.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Felix seemed ravished with delight when he saw her, every trait of sorrow vanished from his face, and it instantly expressed a degree of ecstatic joy, of which I could hardly have believed it capable; his eyes sparkled, as his cheek flushed with pleasure; and at that moment I thought him as beautiful as the stranger.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

To hear Barillo sing a love passage with the voice of an angel, and to hear Tetralani reply like another angel, and to hear it all accompanied by a perfect orgy of glowing and colorful music—is ravishing, most ravishing.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

There was a simultaneous sigh, which created quite a little gust, as the last hope fled, and the treat was ravished from their longing lips.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)