TEMPTATION

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does temptation mean? 

• TEMPTATION (noun)
  The noun TEMPTATION has 3 senses:

1. something that seduces or has the quality to seduce

2. the desire to have or do something that you know you should avoid

3. the act of influencing by exciting hope or desire

  Familiarity information: TEMPTATION used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• TEMPTATION (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Something that seduces or has the quality to seduce

Classified under:

Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents

Synonyms:

enticement; temptation

Hypernyms ("temptation" is a kind of...):

influence (a cognitive factor that tends to have an effect on what you do)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "temptation"):

forbidden fruit (originally an apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden; it is now used to refer to anything that is tempting but dangerous (as sexuality))

bait; come-on; hook; lure; sweetener (anything that serves as an enticement)

allurement (attractiveness)

Derivation:

tempt (give rise to a desire by being attractive or inviting)

Sense 2

Meaning:

The desire to have or do something that you know you should avoid

Classified under:

Nouns denoting feelings and emotions

Context example:

he felt the temptation and his will power weakened

Hypernyms ("temptation" is a kind of...):

desire (the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state)

Derivation:

tempt (dispose or incline or entice to)

Sense 3

Meaning:

The act of influencing by exciting hope or desire

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

enticement; temptation

Context example:

his enticements were shameless

Hypernyms ("temptation" is a kind of...):

influence (causing something without any direct or apparent effort)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "temptation"):

blandishment; wheedling (the act of urging by means of teasing or flattery)

leading astray; leading off (the act of enticing others into sinful ways)

seduction (enticing someone astray from right behavior)

allurement; solicitation (the act of enticing a person to do something wrong (as an offer of sex in return for money))

Derivation:

tempt (induce into action by using one's charm)

tempt (provoke someone to do something through (often false or exaggerated) promises or persuasion)

 Context examples 

She would be never led into temptation, nor left for it to find her out.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Well, when he saw that they were indeed the proofs, it was then that he yielded to temptation.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“I pray that we may never be exposed to such a temptation.”

(The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Meantime, watch and pray that you enter not into temptation: the spirit, I trust, is willing, but the flesh, I see, is weak.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Don't think too well of me, either, this is not one of my temptations.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

On such a subject, sighing heavily, can I have little temptation to be diffuse.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Under such circumstances, however, he was not likely to be proof against the temptation of immediate relief.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

Besides, you have sinned. You have no right to put temptation in the way of your fellow-creatures. You tempted Cooky, and he fell.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

And at his heart pleaded a great temptation.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

This picture is gone, and was doubtless the temptation which urged the murderer to the deed.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)