raptus
Americannoun
Etymology
Origin of raptus
1840–50; < Latin: a seizing, equivalent to rap ( ere ) to seize, abduct, rape 1 + -tus suffix of v. action
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.
It is, however, possible that the raptus was a more serious affair; and Professor Skeat has pointed out the coincidence that Chaucer’s “little son Lowis” was just ten years old in 1391.
From Chaucer and His England by Coulton, G. G.
Yet how graceful she is in her tragic raptus, the chorus shows.
From Woman in the Ninteenth Century and Kindred Papers Relating to the Sphere, Condition and Duties, of Woman. by Fuller, Margaret
When in this state of mind Madame von Breuning used to say that he was in his "raptus."
From Music: An Art and a Language by Spalding, Walter Raymond
Breuning; tell her I am still subject to the "raptus."
From Life of Beethoven by Schindler, Anton
They do but repeat the promise and obscurity of Nature, for she herself has the same largeness, is such another raptus, proceeding to no end, but to a circle or complexity of ends.
From The Atlantic Monthly, Volume 13, No. 76, February, 1864 by Various
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.
