rapt
/rapt
/adjective
1Completely fascinated or absorbed by what one is seeing or hearing: a rapt teenage audience...
- Adults are rapt and absorbed pupils, far more dedicated students than are most kids.
- The shortness of her set was perhaps fortunate, as Tunstall left a rapt audience wanting more.
- Her eyes are warm and alive, as she tells her stories to a rapt audience.
1.1Characterized by a state of fascination: they listened with rapt attention...
- The way she moved demanded my rapt attention while her eyes kept me completely mesmerized.
- The behaviour of animals in captivity was explained, as the students listened in rapt attention.
- With rapt fascination I watched the ritualized escape attempt and re-entrapment of the hero every week.
Synonyms
engrossed, absorbed, lost, preoccupied, in a brown study, intent
1.2Filled with an intense and pleasurable emotion; enraptured: she shut her eyes and seemed rapt with desire...
- The God whom Paul found was not rapt with pleasure when looking on people observing the Law, as the Pharisees would have expected.
- The tone of the dance was by turns rapt, jubilant, and possessed.
- She stood, rapt, saturated in melodic emotion, more affected by it than she could have believed.
1.3Australian /NZ informal another term for wrapped. the newly chosen minister declared he was rapt with his new portfolio...
- I am rapt that Dr Cullen and the Government have now agreed to index those payments.
- Given all this I was rapt to sign a two-year deal with the club earlier this week.
- Both groups said they were rapt with the grant, which they were working towards for seven years.
2 archaic Having been carried away bodily or transported to heaven: he was rapt on high
Derivatives
raptly
/ adverb ...- On the book's cover, we see Riel on that same hilltop, staring raptly into the sky.
- By the way they were all paying attention to him so raptly, I could tell he was the ringleader of the group.
- She offered a quick nod, and turned back to face the city, raptly staring at the steadily rising flames.
raptness
Origin
Late Middle English (in the sense 'transported by religious feeling'): from Latin raptus 'seized', past participle of rapere.