captivate

English

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin captīvō; synchronically analyzable as captive +‎ -ate.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˈkæptɪveɪt/

• Audio (Southern England)

  (file)

• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˈkæptəˌveɪt/
• Hyphenation: cap‧tiv‧ate

Verb

captivate (third-person singular simple present captivates, present participle captivating, simple past and past participle captivated)

1. To attract and hold interest and attention of; charm.
   • 1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 3, in The Mirror and the Lamp:

     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.

2. (obsolete) To take prisoner; to capture; to subdue.
   • c. 1591–1592, William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene iv]:

     Their woes whom fortune captivates.

   • 1665, Joseph Glanvill, Scepsis Scientifica

     '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.

Related terms

• captivation

Translations

to attract and hold interest and attention of

• Arabic: أَسَرَ‎ (ʾasara), أَخَذَ‎ (ar) (ʾaḵaḏa), فَتَنَ‎ (fatana)
• Belarusian: зачаро́ўваць impf (začaróŭvacʹ), зачарава́ць pf (začaravácʹ)
• Bulgarian: очаровам (bg) (očarovam)
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 著迷 (zh), 着迷 (zh) (zháomí)

• Dutch: bekoren (nl), boeien (nl), fascineren (nl)
• Finnish: kiehtoa (fi)
• French: captiver (fr)
• German: bestechen (de), bezaubern (de), entzücken (de), faszinieren (de), fesseln (de)
• Hungarian: lenyűgöz (hu), elbűvöl (hu), megnyer (hu), meghódít (hu), rabul ejt, megragad (hu), megbabonáz (hu), levesz a lábáról, magával ragad, lefegyverez (hu), megigéz (hu), elragadtat (hu), lebilincsel (hu)

• Italian: catturare (it), attirare l'attenzione, attrarre (it), accattivare (it)
• Japanese: 惹き付ける (ひきつける, hikitsukeru)
• Maori: ātahu
• Portuguese: cativar (pt)
• Russian: зачаро́вывать (ru) impf (začaróvyvatʹ), зачарова́ть (ru) pf (začarovátʹ), очаро́вывать (ru) impf (očaróvyvatʹ), очарова́ть (ru) pf (očarovátʹ), пленя́ть (ru) impf (plenjátʹ), плени́ть (ru) pf (plenítʹ)
• Scottish Gaelic: beò-ghlac
• Serbo-Croatian: očárati (sh)
• Spanish: cautivar (es)
• Swedish: fängsla (sv)

Anagrams

• captative

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Latin

Verb

captīvāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of captīvō