Library / English Dictionary

RAPTURE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A state of being carried away by overwhelming emotion

Example:

listening to sweet music in a perfect rapture

Synonyms:

ecstasy; exaltation; rapture; raptus; transport

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

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

emotional state; spirit (the state of a person's emotions (especially with regard to pleasure or dejection))

Derivation:

rapturous (feeling great rapture or delight)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A state of elated bliss

Synonyms:

ecstasy; rapture

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

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

bliss; blissfulness; cloud nine; seventh heaven; walking on air (a state of extreme happiness)

Derivation:

rapturous (feeling great rapture or delight)

Credits

 Context examples: 

There could be only the most proper alacrity, a most obliging compliance for public view; and smiles reined in and spirits dancing in private rapture.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

The golden year was dying as it had lived, a beautiful and unrepentant voluptuary, and reminiscent rapture and content freighted heavily the air.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I asked him what it was, and he said, with a sort of rapture in his voice and bearing:— "A kitten, a nice little, sleek playful kitten, that I can play with, and teach, and feed—and feed—and feed!"

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

So far her improvement was sufficient—and in many other points she came on exceedingly well; for though she could not write sonnets, she brought herself to read them; and though there seemed no chance of her throwing a whole party into raptures by a prelude on the pianoforte, of her own composition, she could listen to other people's performance with very little fatigue.

(Northanger Abbey, by Jane Austen)

"Mademoiselle is charmante, tres jolie, is she not?" cried Hortense, clasping her hands in an affected rapture.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Don't pretend to be in raptures about mine.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Colonel Brandon alone, of all the party, heard her without being in raptures.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

I was in a state of perfect rapture.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Be sure that is the only tie he seriously acknowledges between you and him; so don't make him the object of your fine feelings, your raptures, agonies, and so forth.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

“Now, Kitty, you may cough as much as you choose,” said Mr. Bennet; and, as he spoke, he left the room, fatigued with the raptures of his wife.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)