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
It emerged at the same time as Fauvism in painting and lasted a year longer than Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, which dazzled audiences with ravishing, often exotic visions, sets and costumes ablaze in jewel tones.
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 21, 2025
Our critic called it “instructive, ravishing and thorough.”
From The Wall Street Journal • Nov. 9, 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
I knew he was a ravishing ginger with perfect dimples and an irresistible smile.
From "Americanized" by Sara Saedi
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.
