rapture
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈɹæpt͡ʃɚ/
ipa: /ˈɹaptʃə/
ipa: /ˈɹɛptʃɘ/
rhymes: -æptʃə(ɹ)
Forms: form: raptures
Etymology: Borrowed from Middle French rapture, from Latin raptūra, future active participle of rapiō (“snatch, carry off”).
Senses: examples: text: Music, when thus applied, raises noble hints in the mind of the hearer, and fills it with great conceptions. It strengthens devotion, and advances praise into rapture[…]
ref: 1712 June 25 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “SATURDAY, June 14, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 407; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC:
text: Sunderland’s right-back, Santiago Vergini, inadvertently gave Southampton the lead by lashing the ball into his own net in the 12th minute, and that signalled the start of a barmy encounter that had home fans in raptures and Sunderland in tatters.
ref: 2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian:
text: My heart filled with rapture then, and it fills now as it has each of the countless times I have recalled those dear words, as it shall fill always until death has claimed me. I may never see her again; she may not know how I love her--she may question, she may doubt; but always true and steady, and warm with the fires of love my heart beats for the girl who said that night: "I love you beyond all conception."
ref: 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:
glosses: Extreme pleasure, happiness or excitement.
examples: text: In the last week, believers have linked Charlie Kirk’s assassination to the rapture theory: some on TikTok have suggested that Kirk, who in death became a martyr for Christian nationalists and whose memorial service veered into religious revival territory, could be resurrected during the rapture.
ref: 2025 September 23, Alaina Demopoulos, “‘It’s prime time for rapture talk’: TikTok gets its first ‘world is ending’ moment”, in The Guardian, →ISSN:
topics: Christianity
glosses: Alternative letter-case form of Rapture.
raw_tags: with the
glosses: The act of kidnapping or abducting, especially the forceful carrying off of a woman.
glosses: Rape; ravishment; sexual violation.
examples: text: That 'gainst a rock, or flat, her keel did dash / With headlong rapture.
ref: 1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC:
text: With the rapture of great winds to blow / About earth's shaken coignes.
ref: 1888, James Russell Lowell, Agassiz, 6.1.21:
glosses: The act of carrying, conveying, transporting or sweeping along by force of movement; the force of such movement; the fact of being carried along by such movement.
examples: text: Your pratling nurse
Into a rapture lets her baby cry
ref: c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:
glosses: A spasm; a fit; a syncope; delirium.
Derived terms: rapture of the deep
Related terms: rapt