ravish

ravish — verb

1. to affect someone with such powerful happiness or emotional pleasure that they f

1.verbtransitiveC1
Definition

to affect someone with such powerful happiness or emotional pleasure that they feel completely taken over — typically used of the effect of art, music, nature, or great beauty on a person

Example

The audience sat in silence, ravished by the pianist's final movement.

ravished by + [work of art]

At sunset on the cliff, Mira felt ravished by the wild beauty of the coastline.

Common collocations
  • ravish the senses
  • ravish the eye
  • be ravished by beauty
  • be ravished by music
  • be ravished by art
Synonyms
  • enchant

    similar level of delight but less intense; can apply to anything pleasing, not just art or beauty

  • entrance

    suggests a dreamlike, trance-like state of fascination; slightly softer than ravish

  • enrapture

    very close in meaning to ravish; both imply being carried away by joy

Antonyms
  • repel

    to cause strong dislike or disgust — the opposite of being captivated by beauty

Grammar Patterns

ravish + noun phrase (the senses, the heart)

be ravished by + noun phrase (beauty, music, art)

Usage Note

This sense is now rare in everyday conversation and mainly appears in literary or formal writing. The passive form (be ravished by) is more common than the active voice.

Common Mistakes

The pizza ravished me.
The symphony ravished the audience.
This sense describes profound aesthetic or emotional rapture, not casual enjoyment of food or simple pleasures.

2. to make a person — especially a woman or a girl — take part in a sexual act by u

2.verbtransitiveB2
Definition

to make a person — especially a woman or a girl — take part in a sexual act by using force, without that person's agreement; an older word now mostly replaced by much more common 'rape'

Example

The novel describes a time when soldiers would ravish women in conquered towns.

historical context: soldiers + ravish + women in wartime

In old legal documents, the word 'ravish' was used where courts now use 'rape'.

legal register: 'ravish' replaced by 'rape' in modern usage

Common collocations
  • ravish a woman
  • ravish a girl
  • be ravished by soldiers
  • ravish in wartime
Synonyms
  • rape

    the standard modern word; direct and widely used in law, news, and conversation

  • violate

    broader in meaning — can refer to any form of sexual assault or even non-sexual invasion of a person's rights or dignity

  • assault

    the broadest of the three; covers any physical attack, and in legal English 'sexual assault' specifies the nature of the crime

Grammar Patterns

ravish + noun phrase (a woman, a girl)

be ravished by + noun phrase (an attacker, a soldier)

Usage Note

This sense is now most commonly expressed with the word 'rape'. 'Ravish' sounds old-fashioned or formal and is rarely used in modern news reporting or legal contexts. The passive form (be ravished by [attacker]) is typical in historical descriptions.

Common Mistakes

The newspaper reported that a woman was ravished in the park.
The newspaper reported that a woman was raped in the park.
Modern news writing uses 'rape' or 'sexually assault'; 'ravish' would sound archaic in a news report.

Word family

  • ravishing
    adjectiveC1
  • ravished
    adjectiveC1
  • ravishment
    nounC1

Synonym discussion

Sense: verb/2

All three words describe unwanted sexual acts, but they differ in scope and formality. 'Rape' is the standard modern legal term for forced sexual intercourse; 'ravish' is an older, more literary word for the same act, now rare in everyday speech. 'Violate' is broader — it can refer to sexual assault more generally (not only intercourse) and also has non-sexual meanings (violating a law, violating someone's privacy). 'Assault' is the broadest of the three, covering any physical attack, sexual or non-sexual, and in legal contexts often appears as 'sexual assault' to specify the nature of the crime. For example, a news report would say 'He was convicted of rape,' while a historical novel might write 'The invaders ravished the village women,' and a legal document might use 'sexual assault' for a wider range of unwanted sexual contact.

rape ↗violate ↗assault ↗

Common collocations

Prepositions

Etymology

LatinOld FrenchEnglish

Ravish entered English from Old French 'ravir', meaning 'to seize, carry away by force, or delight'. The French word came from Latin 'rapere' (to seize, carry off, snatch). Both modern meanings — the sexual-violence sense and the emotional-rapture sense — grew from this root idea of being 'carried away': by an attacker in the first case, or by powerful emotion or beauty in the second.