seduction
/sɪˈdʌkʃ(ə)n
/noun [mass noun]
1The action of seducing someone: if seduction doesn’t work, she can play on his sympathy [count noun]: she was planning a seduction...
- A magazine editor who has lived in Hollywood for many years, he has witnessed first-hand how corrupting seduction can be.
- The latter used to be called seduction - but seduction is now seen as a crime that we had simply failed to recognise.
- Snakes are an important symbol of power and seduction.
Synonyms
persuading someone to have sexual intercourse, taking away someone's innocence;
rape, violation, debauching, corruption
informal bedding, tumbling
archaic dishonouring, ruin
dated ravishment, defloration
1.1 [count noun] (often seductions) A tempting or attractive thing: the seductions of the mainland...
- Immune to the seductions of fashion, Brookner's preoccupations have nonetheless begun to parallel contemporary anxieties.
- What goes beyond the cataloguing of the hidden structures, the invisible powers, seductions, and numerous offenses we have been preoccupied with for so long?
- Pizzetti is the artist who has rejected the volatile and ephemeral seductions of fashion and the servitude to others by preferring loyalty to himself.
Synonyms
temptation, attraction, lure, allure, call, pull, draw, charm, bait, decoy, magnet;
(seductions) appeal, attractiveness, fascination, interest, glamour, drawing power, magnetism, enchantment, enticement
informal come-on
Origin
Early 16th century: from French séduction or Latin seductio(n-), from seducere 'draw aside' (see seduce).