transitive verb

• 1archaic Seize and carry off (someone) by force.

  ‘there is no assurance that her infant child will not be ravished from her breast’

  More example sentences

  • ‘One night a wolf comes and kills many chickens and ravishes a lamb.’

  Synonyms

  kidnap, carry off, seize, capture, run away with, run off with, make off with, spirit away, hold hostage, hold to ransom, hijack

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  1. 1.1dated (of a man) rape (a woman)
     ‘an angry father who suspects that his daughter has been ravished’
     More example sentences

     • ‘Is that what you said to the daughter of Merewala when you killed her father and ravished her?’
     • ‘They are coming to kill every single man and woman with guns and knives, and to ravish our daughters and wives.’
     • ‘She would be too ashamed to confide in the abbess about how she was ravished by a stranger.’
     • ‘Minutes later, the men were ravishing Cliona - separately at first, then together.’
     • ‘He was supposed to have kept her awake, not ravish her, not rut her like some animal.’
     Synonyms

     rape, sexually abuse, sexually assault, violate, force oneself on, molest

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• 2literary Fill (someone) with intense delight; enrapture.

  ‘ravished by a sunny afternoon, she had agreed without even thinking’

  More example sentences

  • ‘Nineteenth-century travellers were ravished by the romantic spectacle of them, as they were delighted by the orientalism of the city itself, with its mysterious and lascivious suggestions of the east.’

  Synonyms

  enrapture, send into raptures, enchant, fill with delight, delight, charm, entrance, enthral, captivate, bewitch, spellbind, fascinate, transport, overjoy

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