English

Adjective

mesmeric ‎(comparative more mesmeric, superlative most mesmeric)

1. of or relating to mesmerism or mesmerization
   • 1890, Lafcadio Hearn, Karma, in Karma and Other Stories and Essays, London: George G. Harrap & Co., 1921, Chapter VI, p. 36,

     Even were he to write a lie, he could not meet her and maintain it, with her eyes upon his face: they had uttermost power over him—power as of life and death,—those fine grey sweet mesmeric eyes !

   • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, Chapter VIII, p. 125,

     Then suddenly he remembered something Differ had often talked about, what he called the Suggestive Power of the Written Word, the making, by means of arrangements of word and phrase, of mesmeric passes as it were before the reader's mind in order to convince—that was Differ's word, Convince!—Convince Against All Reason.

   • 1990, A.S. Byatt, Possession: A Romance, New York: Random House, Chapter 6, p. 113,

     She was a firm believer in mesmeric healing, from which she claimed to have benefited greatly, and she was also very much involved in the spiritualist experiments of those days […]

Derived terms

• mesmerically

Translations