Library / English Dictionary

CAPTIVATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Attract; cause to be enamored

Example:

She captured all the men's hearts

Synonyms:

becharm; beguile; bewitch; captivate; capture; catch; charm; enamor; enamour; enchant; entrance; fascinate; trance

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

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

appeal; attract (be attractive to)

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

hold (hold the attention of)

work (gratify and charm, usually in order to influence)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

The performance is likely to captivate Sue

Derivation:

captivation (a feeling of great liking for something wonderful and unusual)

captivation (the state of being intensely interested (as by awe or terror))

captive (a person held in the grip of a strong emotion or passion)

Credits

 Context examples: 

The mysterious bright spots on Ceres, which have captivated both the Dawn science team and the public, reveal evidence of Ceres' past subsurface ocean, and indicate that, far from being a dead world, Ceres is surprisingly active.

(Bright Areas on Ceres Suggest Geologic Activity, NASA)

I could only sit down before my fire, biting the key of my carpet-bag, and think of the captivating, girlish, bright-eyed lovely Dora.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was enough to secure his good opinion; for to be unaffected was all that a pretty girl could want to make her mind as captivating as her person.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

And we all know that Wickham has every charm of person and address that can captivate a woman.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

A trifle, perhaps, she's such a captivating little woman I can't help being proud of her.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

About thirty years ago Miss Maria Ward, of Huntingdon, with only seven thousand pounds, had the good luck to captivate Sir Thomas Bertram, of Mansfield Park, in the county of Northampton, and to be thereby raised to the rank of a baronet's lady, with all the comforts and consequences of an handsome house and large income.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

I could not unlove him, because I felt sure he would soon marry this very lady—because I read daily in her a proud security in his intentions respecting her—because I witnessed hourly in him a style of courtship which, if careless and choosing rather to be sought than to seek, was yet, in its very carelessness, captivating, and in its very pride, irresistible.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

I saw her features and her manner slowly change; I saw her look at him with growing admiration; I saw her try, more and more faintly, but always angrily, as if she condemned a weakness in herself, to resist the captivating power that he possessed; and finally, I saw her sharp glance soften, and her smile become quite gentle, and I ceased to be afraid of her as I had really been all day, and we all sat about the fire, talking and laughing together, with as little reserve as if we had been children.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

They had begun to fail him before he entered the house, and they were quite overcome by the captivating manners of Mrs. Dashwood.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Her father, captivated by youth and beauty, and that appearance of good humour which youth and beauty generally give, had married a woman whose weak understanding and illiberal mind had very early in their marriage put an end to all real affection for her.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)