infatuate
Americanverb (used with object)
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to inspire or possess with a foolish or unreasoning passion, as of love.
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to affect with folly; make foolish or fatuous.
adjective
noun
verb
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to inspire or fill with foolish, shallow, or extravagant passion
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to cause to act foolishly
adjective
noun
Usage
What does infatuate mean? To infatuate is to strongly affect someone in a way that causes them to be absorbed with an extreme passion, especially in a way that makes them foolish or unreasonable about it. Infatuate is especially used in a passive way—we usually say that a person is infatuated by someone or something, rather than saying that someone or something infatuates a person. The state of being infatuated is infatuation. This is often used to refer to the state of someone who has fallen in love with a person without really knowing them. But it can refer to any obsessive or passionate focus, such as on an activity or goal. A person who’s affected this way can be described with the adjective infatuated. The word infatuation can also refer to the object of this focus, as in Who’s that you’re staring at—your latest infatuation? Someone or something considered an infatuation can be described as infatuating—meaning it has the power to infatuate. Very rarely, infatuate can be used as an adjective meaning infatuated or as a noun meaning an infatuated person. Example: She’s usually infatuated by her crushes to the point that she can’t see their flaws.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of infatuate
1425–75; late Middle English < Latin infatuātus, past participle of infatuāre. See in- 2, fatuous, -ate 1
Explanation
Have you ever had a ridiculous crush that's made you act foolishly? That person infatuated or inspired unreasonable passion in you, causing you to become infatuated. Infatuate comes from the Latin infatuat- meaning "made foolish." When you are head-over-heels for someone, you might have a tendency to act foolish. Most commonly, you'll see the word used in the term "to be infatuated with." When you are infatuated with someone, you're so enamored that you might behave in an irrational way. Stalkers tend to be infatuated with the subjects of their stalking.
Vocabulary lists containing infatuate
Tess of the d'Urbervilles
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Love
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
The fictional robots of cinema are useful machines with dark potential to infatuate, deceive and destroy human beings.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 27, 2017
Yet one number continues to confound and infatuate them: five.
From BusinessWeek ● Apr. 2, 2014
Chuck Crawford, who combined the curly poll and hyperthyroid eyes of Huey Long with the minnesinging methods of "Pappy" O'Daniel, was crook and virtuoso enough to infatuate Tyler.
From Time Magazine Archive
Tongue-tied and blushing, he sees the daughter of a millionaire shipowner and goes infatuate.
From Time Magazine Archive
And to him she was still verily alive—or had been, till his infatuate passion had blinded him to everything but one face, one form, one desire.
From Far to Seek A Romance of England and India by Maud Diver
“Renoir” takes place in 1987 specifically because that’s the year she turned 11, and, like her protagonist, she was infatuated with “Little Irène.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 5, 2026
Inde Navarrette has earned particular plaudits for her role as a young woman who becomes dangerously infatuated with a man, played by Michael Johnston, after he makes a magical wish for her affection.
From Barron's ● May 31, 2026
Investors infatuated with tech have ignored fossil fuels, but that isn’t the main reason.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 12, 2026
Prosecutor Corinne Bramwell said Morgan, who was aged 17 at the time of the offences, was infatuated and inspired by Rudakubana.
From BBC ● Jan. 16, 2026
McCandless had been infatuated with London since childhood.
From "Into the Wild" by Jon Krakauer
Its rollout led with “Ace Trumpets” and the infatuating “So Be It.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 20, 2025
On these occasions he’d shoot me an infatuating little smile.
From Salon ● Jun. 16, 2019
Listening to a great podcast can feel like falling into conversation with a new best friend or eavesdropping on an infatuating crush.
From New York Times ● Dec. 6, 2016
Shelley's charisma is here, as well as his unpredictable moods; Claire Clairmont is infatuating and infuriating in equal measure.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 1, 2013
There was a fascination, a spirit of infatuating ecstasy, in serving one whose steps had so often led to glory, that filled a man's entire heart.
From Diary And Notes Of Horace Templeton, Esq. Volume I (of II) by Charles James Lever
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
