rapt
[rapt]
- deeply engrossed or absorbed: a rapt listener.
- transported with emotion; enraptured: rapt with joy.
- showing or proceeding from rapture: a rapt smile.
- carried off spiritually to another place, sphere of existence, etc.
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Origin of rapt
1350–1400; Middle English (past participle of rapen to carry off, abduct, rape) < Latin raptus seized, carried off (past participle of rapere), equivalent to rap- (see rape1) + -tus past participle suffix
Synonyms
See more synonyms for rapt on Thesaurus.com2. ecstatic, spellbound, bewitched.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018
Examples from the Web for raptly
Contemporary Examples
Raptly, they drink in the cunningly arranged open floor plan.
Historical Examples
As he gazed at it raptly a scream from the girl aroused him.
In the Morning of TimeCharles G. D. Roberts
The old lady in front lifted a frank handkerchief; the giggling girls were raptly watching.
Jane Journeys OnRuth Comfort Mitchell
She had listened to him raptly, the pale light white upon her lifted face.
Ann Arbor TalesKarl Edwin Harriman
He stayed quite still, listening as raptly as some wandering night-beast to the indiscriminate stir and echoings of the darkness.
The ReturnWalter de la Mare
Raptly gazing at the child's innocent face, Paul softly croons some cradle melody.
Oswald LangdonCarson Jay Lee
rapt1
- totally absorbed; engrossed; spellbound, esp through or as if through emotionrapt with wonder
- characterized by or proceeding from rapturea rapt smile
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Word Origin
C14: from Latin raptus carried away, from rapere to seize; see rape 1
rapt2
- Also: wrapped Australian and NZ informal very pleased: delighted
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Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
© William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012
Word Origin and History for raptly
rapt
adj.
late 14c., "carried away in an ecstatic trance," from Latin raptus, past participle of rapere "seize, carry off" (see rape (v.)). A figurative sense, the notion is of "carried up into Heaven (bodily or in a dream)," as in a saint's vision. Latin literal sense of "carried away" was in English from 1550s. In 15c.-17c. the word also sometimes could mean "raped." Sense of "engrossed" first recorded c.1500. As a past participle adjective, in English it spawned the back-formed verb rap "to affect with rapture," which was common c.1600-1750.
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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper