September 25, 2008

Ravish








ravish

Y
D

–verb (used with object) 
1. to fill with 
strong emotion
esp. joy.  

2. to seize and carry off 
by force.  

3. to carry off (a woman) by force. 
4. to rape (a woman
).  

—Synonyms 1. enrapture (使著迷), transport (使心醉), enthrall (吸引住), delight, captivate.


C

ravage, ravish (vv.), ravishing (adj.) 
   
Ravage
means "to ruin, destroy, plunder, or devastate": The marauders (掠奪者) ravaged the [village]. 

Ravish has three related meanings: 


1. "to rape (literally or figuratively)" 

The [soldiers] killed the few men there and brutally ravished the [women].

2. "to capture and carry off violently

The [storehouse] door had been [broken], and all the supplies had been ravished [away].

3. and, by extension, "to overcome emotionally, to enrapture, to transport [with] delight” 

Their playing of the double concerto simply ravished the [audience]. 


This use of the verb, like most uses of the adjective ravishing, is figurative and hyperbolic: She looked [stunning], absolutely [ravishing], when she made her entrance.   

Only in the sense "to seize or rob and carry off" are ravage and ravish synonymous, even though they both come from the Old French verb ravir, meaning "to carry away," and ultimately from the Latin rapere, from which we get English rape as well. 

Best advice to avoid confusion: limit ravage to destroying and devastating, and separately specify when things are carried off as well. Or use ravish to cover both ideas. 


Tristana_CzA1 
Consider. Don Lope, 

a feisty middle-aged intellectual and atheist


sees his chance when the beautiful young Tristana (Catherine Deneuve) is orphaned. As the girl's guardian, he takes her into his household and (in what seems like no time at all) into his bed. 

While ravishing [her]


he excuses himself by rationalizing that she'd [fare] worse on the streets.


heist rifle pillage caper
arson 
cf. arsenal

felony felon venue injunction
loitering
 
larceny kleptomania purloin filch (small value)
mayhem sabotage

plunder 
to plunder a [town]. 
to plunder the [public treasury].  
Sham








0推薦此文章
Today's Visitors: 0 Total Visitors: 16
Personal Category: words Topic: feeling / personal / murmur
Previous in This Category: Nettlesome   Next in This Category: Shrubbery
[Trackback URL]

Post A Comment









Yes No



Please input the magic number:

( Prevent the annoy garbage messages )
( What if you cannot see the numbers? )
Please input the magic number

誰來收藏
Loading ...
unlog_NVPO 0