noun

• 1A quality of sexual attractiveness.

  ‘he had an animal magnetism that women found irresistible’

  More example sentences

  • ‘From the Beatles and Stones to Jimi Hendrix and Jim Morrison, by and large, the biggest stars were the best musicians and the finest singers; they also tended to be the best looking, the ones most endowed with animal magnetism and charisma.’
  • ‘This was and could still be (one imagines) an actor with a rare gift: he portrays menace with a great undercurrent of charm and animal magnetism.’
  • ‘Now everybody wants leaders with animal magnetism and cinematic glamour.’
  • ‘The stranger has animal magnetism, but no other bestial quality.’
  • ‘Lee overwhelms his female victims with sheer animal magnetism, rather than a combination of stilted attempts at charm and mesmerism.’
  • ‘I, and I think the vast majority of the audience, enjoyed the virtuoso performance of Gambon, with its accompanying belly laughs, and the female members at least, the display of male animal magnetism.’
  • ‘Ruffalo, one of the rising stars of American cinema, gives a smouldering performance that combines animal magnetism with a sly awareness of his social and intellectual inferiority to Ryan's Avery.’
  • ‘She admits that there's something more at work in human love than a finely tuned, highly evolved animal magnetism.’
  • ‘Will love interest, Rianna (cutie Colleen from Survivor) be swept away by his animal magnetism?’
  • ‘First of all, Elvis Presley had a really rare animal magnetism.’
  • ‘He wasn't sexy and didn't swagger with untamed animal magnetism.’
  • ‘Her every pore exuded an earthy yet youthful animal magnetism.’
  • ‘An entire episode is devoted to Chris's animal magnetism with women, and how it has both positives and negatives.’
  • ‘In ‘Reynardine,’ a young woman meets a stranger in the mountains and is ensnared by his animal magnetism.’

  Synonyms

  allure, attraction, fascination, enchantment, appeal, draw, drawing power, pull, charm, seductiveness, sexual magnetism, animal magnetism, magic, spell, charisma

• 2historical A supposed emanation to which the action of mesmerism was ascribed.

  ‘While basically conceptualizing animal magnetism as a dynamic physical fluid, Mesmer was also aware of the impact of rapport and affect in the enhancement of magnetic treatment.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Yes, that's right, mesmerism, it was an early form of hypnosis; it was based on the idea of animal magnetism, and if you conducted certain passes and gestures, literally gestured hypnotically, then the person would go into a trance.’
  • ‘Franz Anton Mesmer presented 27 propositions about animal magnetism in his Memoire sur Ia Decouverte du Magnetisme Animal, published in 1779.’
  • ‘When his subjects were in such states, Mesmer claimed that he could restore the equilibrium of the body's supply of animal magnetism and cure all ills.’
  • ‘There are many theories to attempt to explain how Psychokinesis actually works, from basic ectoplasmic to animal magnetism.’