English

Adjective

rapt ‎(comparative more rapt, superlative most rapt)

1. (not comparable, archaic) Snatched, taken away; abducted.
   • Chapman

     And through the Greeks and Ilians they rapt / The whirring chariot.

   • Sir H. Wotton

     From Oxford I was rapt by my nephew, Sir Edmund Francis Bacon, to Redgrove.

2. (not comparable) Lifted up into the air; transported into heaven.
3. (comparable) Very interested, involved in something, absorbed, transfixed; fascinated or engrossed.

   The children watched in rapt attention as the magician produced object after object from his hat.

   • 1851-2, George W. M. Reynolds, The Necromancer, in Reynolds′s Miscellany, republished 1857; 2008, page 247,

     It was an enthusiasm of the most rapt and holy kind.

   • 1906, Ford Madox Ford, The Fifth Queen; And How She Came to Court, Works of Ford Madox Ford, 2011, unnumbered page,

     Her expression grew more rapt; she paused as if she had lost the thread of the words and then spoke again, gazing far out over the hall as jugglers do in performing feats of balancing: […] .

   • 1908, Kenneth Grahame, The Wind in the Willows

     The Rat never answered, if indeed he heard. Rapt, transported, trembling, he was possessed in all his senses by this new divine thing that caught up his helpless soul and swung and dandled it, a powerless but happy infant in a strong sustaining grasp.

   • 1998, Derel Leebaert, Present at the Creation, Derek Leebaert (editor), The Future of the Electronic Marketplace, page 24,
4. (comparable) Enthusiatic; ecstatic, elated, happy.

   He was rapt with his exam results.

   • Addison

     I'm rapt with joy to see my Marcia's tears.

   • 1996, James Richard Giles, Wanda H. Giles, American Novelists Since World War II: Fifth Series, page 139,

     Creatures who navigate long-distance migrations — including the green turtles, wind birds, or great cranes — draw his most rapt commentaries.

   • 2010, Michael Reichert, Richard Hawley, Reaching Boys, Teaching Boys: Strategies that Work—and Why, John Wiley & Sons, US, page 121,

     Even in the most rapt accounts of independent student work, there appears an appreciative acknowledgment of the teacher′s having determined just the right amount of room necessary to build autonomy without risking frustration and failure.

   • 2010, Caroline Overington, I Came to Say Goodbye, page 201,

     One bloke I met in the pub was the owner of the local meatworks. He was rapt to have the Sudanese, and if 1600 more were coming – that was the rumour – well, he′d have been even more rapt.

   • 2012, Greig Caigou, Wild Horizons: More Great Hunting Adventures, HarperCollins (New Zealand), unnumbered page,

     These are worthy aspects of the hunt to give some consideration to with the next generation, because market forces want us to get more rapt with ever more sophisticated gear and an algorithmic conquering of animal instinct.

Synonyms

• See also Wikisaurus:rapt

Related terms

• rapture

Translations

Verb

rapt ‎(third-person singular simple present rapts, present participle rapting, simple past and past participle rapted or rapt)

1. (obsolete) To transport or ravish.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Drayton to this entry?)

2. (obsolete) To carry away by force.
   • 1819-20, Washington Irving, The Spectre Bridegroom, The Sketch Book of Geoffrey Crayon, Gent., reprinted in 1840, The Works of Washington Irving, Volume 1, page 256,

     His only daughter had either been rapt away to the grave, or he was to have some wood-demon for a son-in-law, and, perchance, a troop of goblin grandchildren.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Daniel to this entry?)

Noun

rapt ‎(plural rapts)

1. (obsolete) An ecstasy; a trance.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Bishop Morton to this entry?)

2. (obsolete) rapidity

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Sir Thomas Browne to this entry?)

Anagrams

• part, prat, tarp, trap

Danish

Adjective

rapt

1. neuter singular of rap

Adverb

rapt

1. quickly, rapidly

French

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin raptus.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ʁapt/

Noun

rapt m ‎(plural rapts)

1. kidnapping, abduction

Synonyms

• enlèvement

Norwegian Bokmål

Alternative forms

• rapa, rapet

Verb

rapt

1. past participle of rape