spellbind
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of spellbind
1800–10; spell 2 + bind, deduced from spellbound
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:
I saw him spellbind a room reciting Sophocles.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 11, 2023
And yet, onstage, under the pink LEDs, the dancers spellbind.
From New York Times ● Jul. 7, 2020
“Throughout his life in jazz, Cecil continues to spellbind or infuriate listeners.”
From Reuters ● Apr. 6, 2018
First, the evening's hero let his sponsors spellbind the crowd.
From Time Magazine Archive
We here at the Mumbai Young Filmmakers Council are all in agreement that Miss Mehra possesses the unique ability to truly transform her characters on-screen in such a way as to spellbind her audience.
From "From Twinkle, with Love" by Sandhya Menon
“Charming built-ins” and “exposed wood beams” give the interior a vintage feel, while the lush landscaping outside is equally as spellbinding.
From MarketWatch ● Sep. 3, 2026
The Telegraph awarded four stars to the "spellbinding spectacle", while the Guardian's four-star review said it features "spectacular stagecraft and plenty of modern resonance".
From BBC ● Aug. 9, 2026
More than 80 years after he was created in Albert Camus’s 1942 novella “The Stranger,” Meursault is still the same chilling prophet of alienation, a walking caricature of emotionlessness who is nevertheless spellbinding.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Apr. 2, 2026
Like the rest of Rebecca Zlotowski’s spellbinding film, this bit of character work in “A Private Life” — or, in its original French, “Vie Privée” — keenly marries French filmmaking with American sensibilities.
From Salon ● Jan. 18, 2026
But there were other times when that emotion made him spellbinding and untouchable.
From "Friday Night Lights: A Town, A Team, And A Dream" by H.G. Bissinger
To find the city as spellbound by its basketball team, you have to go back to the 1970 and 1973 champions, with the likes of Walt Frazier, Willis Reed and smooth Earl “The Pearl” Monroe.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 7, 2026
The spellbound astronauts pinned themselves to the windows, the first humans to see the far side of our nearest celestial neighbour.
From BBC ● Aug. 8, 2025
But Las Vegas seems spellbound by the Super Bowl, which is making its first appearance in a place that the N.F.L., not so long ago, avoided to the point of parody.
From New York Times ● Feb. 8, 2024
Whitney Houston is luxury displaced, spellbound, chased away.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 1, 2023
She looked down at me and that clear, bright power in her eyes held me spellbound.
From "Bless Me, Ultima" by Rudolfo Anaya
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.
