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What is the difference between ravish and ravage?

ravish | ravage |

As verbs the difference between ravish and ravage

is that ravish is to seize and carry away by violence; to snatch by force while ravage is to devastate or destroy something.

As a noun ravage is

grievous damage or havoc.

ravish

English

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.

    Synonyms

    * abripe * (seize and carry away) kidnap

    Derived terms

    * ravishing * ravishment

    ravage

    English

    Verb

  • To devastate or destroy something.
  • To pillage or sack something, to lay waste to something.
  • To wreak destruction.
  • Noun

    (en noun)
  • Grievous damage or havoc.
  • * Addison
  • Would one think 'twere possible for love / To make such ravage in a noble soul?
  • Depredation or devastation
  • the ravage''' of a lion; the '''ravages''' of fire or tempest; the '''ravages of an army, or of time