captivate
/ˈkæptəˌveɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.52 in modern English
16
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
7
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To make (a person, an animal, etc.) a captive; to take prisoner; to capture, to subdue.
Obsolete; Transitive verb
Example Sentences
- "Hovv ill-beſeeming is it in thy Sex, / To triumph like an Amazonian Trull, / Vpon their VVoes, vvhom Fortune captiuates?"
- "Dabuh is the name of a ſimple and baſe creature like a VVolfe, ſaue that his legges and feete are like to a mans: ſo fooliſh, that vvith a ſong, & a Taber, they vvhich knovv his haunt vvill bring him out of his denne, and captiue his eares vvith their muſicke, vvhile another captiuateth his legges vvith a Rope."
- "Hee hath no skill in Rhetoricke, nor can hee vvith a preface fore-ſtall and captivate the Gentle Readers good vvill: nor careth he greatly to knovve it."
- "They that are vviſe, had rather haue their iudgements at libertie in differences of readings, then to be captiuated to one, vvhen it may be the other."
- "'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."
- "Hir ſlippers rauyſhed his eyes, hir bewtye captyuated his mynde, with the swerde ſmote ſhe of his neck."
Etymology
Learned borrowing from Late Latin captīvātus, the perfect passive participle of captīvō (“to capture”), from Latin captīvus (“captive, prisoner”) (ultimately from capiō (“to capture, seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to hold; to seize”)) + -ō (suffix forming first-conjugation verbs). Equivalent to captive + -ate (verb-forming suffix).
Origin
- Source language: Latin
Word Breakdown
Regional Pronunciation
- American English: /ˈkæptəˌveɪt/
- British English: /ˈkæptɪveɪt/
Usage
Inflected Forms
captivates (present, singular)
captivating (participle, present)
captivated (participle, past)
captivated (past)
no-table-tags (table tags)
glossary (inflection template)
captivated (first person, past)
captivatest (archaic, present)
captivated (past, second person)
captivatedst (archaic, past)
captivateth (archaic, present)
captivated (past, singular)