rape
1 Americannoun
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unlawful sexual intercourse or any other sexual penetration of the vagina, anus, or mouth of another person, with or without force, by a sex organ, other body part, or foreign object, without the consent of the person subjected to such penetration.
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any sexual activity, with or without penetration, that takes place without the consent of one of the people involved.
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an act of plunder, violent seizure, or abuse; despoliation; violation.
the rape of the countryside.
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Archaic. the act of seizing and carrying off by force.
The rape of the Sabine women is the subject of several classical sculptures and paintings that depict Roman soldiers kidnapping unwilling brides.
verb (used with object)
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rapes,
present (3rd person singular)
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raped,
past participle, past
-
raping
present participle
-
to commit the crime of rape against (a person).
-
The logging operation raped a wide tract of forest without regard for the environmental impact of their harvesting practices.
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Informal: Offensive. to totally defeat, wreck, dominate, or decimate.
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Archaic. to seize, take, or carry off by force.
verb (used without object)
-
rapes,
present (3rd person singular)
-
raped,
past participle, past
-
raping
present participle
noun
noun
noun
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the offence of forcing a person, esp a woman, to submit to sexual intercourse against that person's will See also statutory rape
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the act of despoiling a country in warfare; rapine
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any violation or abuse
the rape of justice
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archaic abduction
the rape of the Sabine women
verb
-
to commit rape upon (a person)
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(also intr) to plunder or despoil (a place) in war
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archaic to carry off by force; abduct
noun
noun
Sensitive Note
There are many violent metaphors to describe a dramatic victory or defeat: The home team slaughtered the competition on Saturday. It was a bloodbath! They absolutely massacred the visiting team. The defense was decimated. Our guys killed it! This type of hyperbole is sometimes tasteless, but it is not generally considered to be offensive. However, rape is a crime with survivors in every stratum of every society. Using rape as a metaphor for some other struggle trivializes the trauma of sexual assault that many have suffered. Such figurative usage is beyond insensitive and should be avoided.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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rapesimple
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rapessimple
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have rapedperfect
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has rapedperfect
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am rapingprogressive
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are rapingprogressive
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is rapingprogressive
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have been rapingperfect progressive
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has been rapingperfect progressive
Past
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rapedsimple
-
had rapedperfect
-
was rapingprogressive
-
were rapingprogressive
-
had been rapingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of rape1
First recorded in 1250–1300; (for the verb) Middle English rapen, from Anglo-French raper, from Latin rapere “to seize, carry off by force, plunder”; (for the noun) Middle English, from Anglo-French ra(a)p(e), derivative of raper
Origin of rape2
First recorded in 1350–1400; Middle English, from Middle French or directly from Latin rāpum (neuter), rāpa (feminine) “turnip”; cognate with Greek rhápys
Origin of rape3
First recorded in 1590–1600; from French râpe, Old French, Middle French raspe “grape stalks,” from Germanic; compare Old High German raspōn “to scrape,” Medieval Latin raspa “bunch of grapes”
Explanation
Rape is a word for sexual assault. This is one of the worst crimes there is. Rape can also mean to plunder or strip something of resources. There are few words more powerful than rape, which is a horrifying crime. To rape someone is to force them to have sex with you. This word isn't an obscenity, but its meaning is. There are also some metaphorical meanings, like if a country is said to rape the land of a resource, like oil. Some countries might rape their rain forests by cutting them down. However it's used, rape is a violent and ugly word.
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:
Phillips ultimately lost his job with Collins too, this time after crudely mocking a rival political operative whose wife had accused former NBC journalist Matt Lauer of rape.
From Slate ● Aug. 27, 2026
He spent 23 years in prison before his 1999 rape conviction was vacated after his DNA was not detected in any of the blood or semen samples found at the scene.
From Salon ● Aug. 10, 2026
A month after prosecutors filed the rape charges, Mr. Carroll was transferred to Salinas Valley State Prison, a men’s penitentiary, where he is still confined.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
Platner, a Marine veteran whose blunt anti-establishment message thrilled the progressive grassroots, quit the race after a rape allegation he denies.
From Barron's ● Jul. 10, 2026
This was the same year in which William Blake evoked England’s 'dark, Satanic mills* in his poem ‘Jerusalem’, but Beethoven's easy-listening Pastoral is not about the industrial rape of the countryside.
From "The Story of Music" by Howard Goodall
Enough said its wording on the number of rapes a year in the UK now referred to the "estimated" number, and that its kits "can in principle be admissible in court".
From BBC ● May 19, 2026
The early 2025 crime decline builds off numbers from 2023 and 2024 and appears to include not just homicide but also robberies, rapes, burglaries, and auto theft.
From Slate ● May 7, 2025
Kutcher said Masterson‘s family approached them after the actor was convicted in the rapes in May and asked them to write character letters describing “the person that we knew for 25 years.”
From Washington Times ● Sep. 10, 2023
The 2022 annual report from the City of Atlanta Police Department shows violent crime — homicides, rapes, robberies and aggravated assaults — decreased 9% from 2021 to 2022.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 22, 2023
Nor with peruerse loues and religious rapes Reuenge Thy bountyes in their beauteous shapes; And punish best things worst; because they stood Guilty of being much for them too good.
From The Complete Works of Richard Crashaw, Volume I (of 2) by Richard Crashaw
The judge reserved the question of what she called “guardrails for witnesses”—that is, whether Mr. Carroll’s alleged victims will be admonished or perhaps even penalized if they testify that he, rather than “she,” raped them.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 24, 2026
An MP has said he was raped after a night out nearly a decade ago, as he called for an end to the stigma around being a victim of sexual assault.
From BBC ● Nov. 21, 2025
But these laws punish all women and girls: mothers and non-mothers, wives and single women, women who've had 100 partners and those who were virgins when raped.
From Salon ● Dec. 2, 2024
Former President Trump is suing TV journalist George Stephanopoulos and ABC News for defamation for saying he raped advice columnist E. Jean Carroll.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 19, 2024
During an attack he was heard to say something about the struggle of men against being raped by ions and flowers.
From The Journal of Abnormal Psychology, Volume 10 by Various
In 2011, he received a Tony nomination for his role in The Scottsboro Boys, a musical based on the true story of nine Black teenagers wrongly accused of raping two white women.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 10, 2026
Former Barcelona and Brazil footballer Dani Alves denied raping a woman in a nightclub as he took the stand on the final day of his trial in Spain.
From BBC ● Feb. 7, 2024
Carroll sued Trump in November 2019 and seeks at least $10 million in damages over comments he made while in office that June after she first publicly accused him of raping her in the mid-1990s.
From Salon ● Dec. 13, 2023
Alfred Uhry and Jason Robert Brown’s 1998 musical tells the story of the 1913 trial of Leo Frank, a factory manager in Atlanta who was accused of raping and murdering a 13-year-old employee.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 18, 2023
The New York jury on Tuesday cleared Mr. Trump of raping Ms. Carroll in a Manhattan department store in the 1990s.
From Washington Times ● May 10, 2023
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.
