ravishing
Americanadjective
adjective
Usage
What else does ravishing mean? Content warning: this article contains sexual language.Someone, usually a woman, called ravishing is "stunningly beautiful."To ravish someone historically meant to "plunder" or "violently seize and rape a woman," but in contemporary speech it refers to wanting passionate, consensual intercourse with a person.
Other Word Forms
- ravishingly adverb
Etymology
Origin of ravishing
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.
Such awe asks for the superhuman from singers, especially in this ensemble from their ravishing high notes.
From Los Angeles Times • Feb. 24, 2026
Three years ago, the first sequel, “Avatar: The Way of Water,” was even more visually ravishing to regard, albeit thin in its storytelling.
From The Wall Street Journal • Dec. 17, 2025
“Sèvres Extraordinaire!”—which also includes portrait busts, plaques, medallions, platters and breakfast, coffee and tea services—is instructive, ravishing and thorough.
From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 1, 2025
This was followed by two programs with Haïm’s own ravishing period instrument ensemble, Le Concert d’Astrée.
From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 1, 2025
Isn’t there a kind of ravishing delight in the chase of it?
From "All the Light We Cannot See" by Anthony Doerr
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.
