Verb

(captivat)

To attract and hold interest and attention of; charm.

* Washington Irving

small landscapes of captivating loveliness

*, chapter=3

, title= The Mirror and the Lamp , passage=One saint's day in mid-term a certain newly appointed suffragan-bishop came to the school chapel, and there preached on “The Inner Life.”  He at once secured attention by his informal method, and when presently the coughing of Jarvis […] interrupted the sermon, he altogether captivated his audience with a remark about cough lozenges being cheap and easily procurable.}}

(obsolete) To take prisoner; to capture; to subdue.

* Shakespeare

Their woes whom fortune captivates .

* Glanvill

'Tis a greater credit to know the ways of captivating Nature, and making her subserve our purposes, than to have learned all the intrigues of policy.

Verb

(es)

(obsolete, or, archaic) To seize and carry away by violence; to snatch by force.

To transport with joy or delight; to delight to ecstasy.

* {{quote-book

, year=1873 , author=Jules Verne , title=Around the World in 80 Days , chapter=9 citation , passage=Passepartout was ravished to behold this celebrated place, and thought that, with its circular walls and dismantled fort, it looked like an immense coffee-cup and saucer.}}

To rape.

* {{quote-book

, year=1759 , author=Voltaire , title=Candide , chapter=8 citation , passage=A tall Bulgarian soldier, six feet high, perceiving that I had fainted away at this sight, attempted to ravish me; the operation brought me to my senses. I cried, I struggled, I bit, I scratched, I would have torn the tall Bulgarian’s eyes out, not knowing that what had happened at my father’s castle was a customary thing.}}

* 1590 , Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene , III.x:

For loe that Guest would beare her forcibly, / And meant to ravish her, that rather had to dy.