rapture
/ˈraptʃə
/noun
1 [mass noun] A feeling of intense pleasure or joy: Leonora listened with rapture...
- In her youth Queen Victoria listened with rapture to the impressive and glorious music of the great oratorios rendered in the Minster.
- While he hasn't put a title to his collection, one cannot miss the sense of rapture and enchantment that the paintings seem to convey.
- Music can impart in us a feeling of melancholy and sorrow, rapture and euphoria.
Synonyms
ecstasy, bliss, euphoria, elation, exaltation, joy, joyfulness, joyousness, cloud nine, seventh heaven, transport, rhapsody, enchantment, delight, exhilaration, happiness, pleasure, ravishment
informal the top of the world
humorous delectation
1.1 (raptures) Expressions of intense pleasure or enthusiasm about something: the tabloids went into raptures about her...
- A lady went into raptures about the cheeseboard, and the complexity of the flavour of the mature cheddar.
- It would be easy to go into raptures about the role and the film, set in working-class London of 1950.
- Retired All-Black Murray Mexted, commentating on TV during the last match, was in raptures.
Synonyms
enthuse, rhapsodize, rave, gush, wax lyrical, express intense pleasure/enthusiasm;
heap praise on, praise to the skies, make much of
informal go wild/mad/crazy
2 (the Rapture) North American (According to some millenarian teaching) the transporting of believers to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ: thousands of Christians gathered outside Rochester and other cities, awaiting the Rapture...
- These focus on salvation, the Rapture, and the Second Coming of Jesus.
- The October 11 date he set for the Rapture came and went uneventfully.
- Protestant fundamentalists believe that shortly before the end, all the born-again Christians with true faith will be snatched up to heaven; they call this Rapture.
verb [with object] North American
(According to some millenarian teaching) transport (a believer) from earth to heaven at the Second Coming of Christ: people will be raptured out of automobiles as they are driving along...
- Christ will return secretly to rapture his saints before the great tribulation.
- On top of that, some believe that they will be raptured to safety in heaven, while others believe that they will be raptured to a place of safety on earth.
- If you think that demonic powers are present at the moment, just wait until the saints have been raptured away and Satan and his armies have taken full control of the earth.
Origin
Late 16th century (in the sense 'seizing and carrying off'): from obsolete French, or from medieval Latin raptura 'seizing', partly influenced by rapt.