RAPTURE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does rapture mean? 

• RAPTURE (noun)
  The noun RAPTURE has 2 senses:

1. a state of being carried away by overwhelming emotion

2. a state of elated bliss

  Familiarity information: RAPTURE used as a noun is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RAPTURE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A state of being carried away by overwhelming emotion

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

ecstasy; exaltation; rapture; raptus; transport

Context example:

listening to sweet music in a perfect rapture

Hypernyms ("rapture" is a kind of...):

emotional state; spirit (the state of a person's emotions (especially with regard to pleasure or dejection))

Derivation:

rapturous (feeling great rapture or delight)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A state of elated bliss

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

ecstasy; rapture

Hypernyms ("rapture" is a kind of...):

bliss; blissfulness; cloud nine; seventh heaven; walking on air (a state of extreme happiness)

Derivation:

rapturous (feeling great rapture or delight)

 Context examples 

A key is thrown in, which unlocks the door, and in a spasm of rapture he tears off his chains and rushes away to find and rescue his lady love.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

The astonishment which I had at first experienced on this discovery soon gave place to delight and rapture.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

It was a sudden meeting, and one in which rapture was kept well in check by pain.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

Every body who saw it was pleased, but Mr. Elton was in continual raptures, and defended it through every criticism.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

When that was once done, however, it was time for the raptures of Edward to cease; for Marianne's joy hurried her into the drawing-room immediately.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

Here's what may tranquillise every care, and lift the heart to rapture!

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Our tears were not for the trials (hers so much the greater) through which we had come to be thus, but for the rapture of being thus, never to be divided more!

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Will you give me leave to defer your raptures till I write again?

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I cried out, as in a rapture, Happy nation, where every child hath at least a chance for being immortal!

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

“Is it fair to break a dozen hearts in order to intoxicate one with rapture? I’m off to the Continent next week.”

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)