Dictionary.com
definitions
  • synonyms

rapt

[rapt]
adjective
  1. deeply engrossed or absorbed: a rapt listener.
  2. transported with emotion; enraptured: rapt with joy.
  3. showing or proceeding from rapture: a rapt smile.
  4. carried off spiritually to another place, sphere of existence, etc.
Show More

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
Related formsrapt·ly, adverbrapt·ness, noun
Can be confusedrapped rapt wrapped wrapt

Synonyms

2. 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

Historical Examples

  • As he gazed at it raptly a scream from the girl aroused him.

    In the Morning of Time

    Charles G. D. Roberts

  • The old lady in front lifted a frank handkerchief; the giggling girls were raptly watching.

    Jane Journeys On

    Ruth Comfort Mitchell

  • She had listened to him raptly, the pale light white upon her lifted face.

    Ann Arbor Tales

    Karl Edwin Harriman

  • He stayed quite still, listening as raptly as some wandering night-beast to the indiscriminate stir and echoings of the darkness.

    The Return

    Walter de la Mare

  • Raptly gazing at the child's innocent face, Paul softly croons some cradle melody.

    Oswald Langdon

    Carson Jay Lee

British Dictionary definitions for raptly

rapt1

adjective
  1. totally absorbed; engrossed; spellbound, esp through or as if through emotionrapt with wonder
  2. characterized by or proceeding from rapturea rapt smile
Show More
Derived Formsraptly, adverb

Word Origin

C14: from Latin raptus carried away, from rapere to seize; see rape 1

rapt2

adjective
  1. Also: wrapped Australian and NZ informal very pleased: delighted
Show More
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.

Show More
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper