nounplural noun ecstasies

• 1An overwhelming feeling of great happiness or joyful excitement.

  ‘there was a look of ecstasy on his face’

  More example sentences

  • ‘they went into ecstasies over the view’
  • ‘At that moment, I closed my eyes, every feeling of happiness and ecstasy going through me immediately.’
  • ‘While continentals swoon with ecstasy over white asparagus, it is the green spears we crave.’
  • ‘Community Planning is in ecstasy over the spending increases they can expect from the new council.’
  • ‘That weird feeling of ecstasy overwhelmed her and her mind became foggy for a moment.’
  • ‘As you filed out of the stadium that night the sense of ecstasy and optimism was almost overwhelming.’
  • ‘For a few minutes he felt pure joy and ecstasy even though his fate told a much different story.’
  • ‘As the song and the dance went on their hearts were filled with ecstasy and tears of joy flowed from their eyes.’
  • ‘When the hymns started, Jimmy's expression changed to one of ecstasy and transport.’
  • ‘There is a freedom, thrill and ecstasy associated with being employed which is indescribable.’
  • ‘The temptation to let the heady ecstasy of power get the better of you is self-evident.’
  • ‘But what had me really sighing with ecstasy was the yam and meat hotpot.’
  • ‘It was breathtaking, heart-stopping stuff with an ending to send the York City faithful into ecstasy.’
  • ‘The last two races were auction races with serious betting creating ecstasy.’
  • ‘A news photographer took a picture of a man waving a flag in ecstasy, which was published on the front page.’
  • ‘Look at the canvass after a couple of days when he is through and you wouldn't help uttering sighs of ecstasy.’
  • ‘The two seconds of palpable ecstasy dissipates to a sudden realization that the action is over.’
  • ‘We look at each other, and I notice there are tears in his eyes from sheer ecstasy.’
  • ‘Throwing my head back at the sheer ecstasy of being alive, I howled at the moon.’
  • ‘His body twitched from the sheer ecstasy of it all.’
  • ‘The day I discovered that someone had linked to my blog, I experienced the ultimate ecstasy.’

  Synonyms

  rapture, bliss, elation, euphoria, cloud nine, seventh heaven, transports, rhapsodies

  View synonyms
• 2An emotional or religious frenzy or trance-like state, originally one involving an experience of mystic self-transcendence.

  ‘Stigmatics often receive religious visions or ecstasies, having visions of Christ and various saints, and also ‘re-living’ or seeing parts of Christ's passion and sharing in his suffering.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘The Book of Margery Kempe, the spiritual autobiography of the wife of a Lynn burgess, exemplified the virtues which lay men and women sought, and the revelations, visions, and ecstasies by which they came to possess them.’
  • ‘He combined a Catholic devotion to the sacraments of the Church with a Pentecostal welcoming of healings, ecstasies and Low Church spontaneity.’
  • ‘Her afflictions, visions, and ecstasies began to spread her fame on the winds of the Catholic Awakening movement that was gaining force at the time.’
  • ‘Spiritual ecstasy must not come at the cost of dignity.’
• 3

  (also Ecstasy)

  An amphetamine-based recreational drug having euphoric effects, typically taken in the form of a pill and particularly associated with clubbing and dance music subcultures.

  ‘The recreational drug ecstasy is neurotoxic if taken in high enough doses.’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Initially, the autopsy results indicated that his internal injuries were thought to be from ingesting liquid ecstasy.’
  • ‘Last year he was in court again on charges of conspiring to supply ecstasy and amphetamines.’
  • ‘A hit or two of ecstasy might cause more than just an overwhelming desire to dance the night away.’
  • ‘Police arrested him and found a tablet of ecstasy in his pocket.’