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.
Infatuate I trifled youth away, In nothingness dreamed through my manhood's day.
From The Poems of Emma Lazarus, Volume 2 Jewish poems: Translations by Lazarus, Emma
Then Jove of sober judgment so bereft Infatuate Glaucus that with Tydeus' son He barter'd gold for brass, an hundred beeves290 In value, for the value small of nine.
From The Iliad of Homer Translated into English Blank Verse by William Cowper by Cowper, William
Infatuate, in-fat′ū-āt, v.t. to make foolish: to affect with folly: to deprive of judgment: to inspire with foolish passion: to stupefy.—adj. infatuated or foolish.—n.
From Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary (part 2 of 4: E-M) by Various
But let him rot in peace Crazed as he is, and by the stroke of Jove470 Infatuate.
From The Iliad of Homer Translated into English Blank Verse by William Cowper by Cowper, William
Infatuate loiterer, has fate, in vain, Unclasp'd his iron gripe to set thee free?
From Dr. Johnson's Works: Life, Poems, and Tales, Volume 1 The Works of Samuel Johnson, Ll.D., in Nine Volumes by Johnson, Samuel
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.
