captivate

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /ˈkæptɪveɪt/

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.
   • Washington Irving

     small landscapes of captivating loveliness

   • 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.
   • 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.

Translations

to attract and hold interest and attention of

• Arabic: أَسَرَ ‎(ʾasara)
• 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)
• Finish: kiehtoa (fi)
• French: captiver (fr)
• German: bestechen (de)

• Italian: catturare (it), attirare l'attenzione, attrarre, 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)

Anagrams

• captative

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Latin

Verb

captīvāte

1. second-person plural present active imperative of captīvō