rapture

plural raptures

1. countableuncountableExtreme pleasure, happiness or excitement.

   They went into raptures about the meal they'd had.

   3 more examples

   Music, when thus applied, raises noble hints in the mind of the hearer, and fills it with great conceptions. It strengthens devotion, and advances praise into rapture[…]

   1712 June 24 (Gregorian calendar), [Joseph Addison; Richard Steele et al.], “FRIDAY, June 14, 1712”, in The Spectator, number 407; republished in Alexander Chalmers, editor, The Spectator; a New Edition, […], volume IV, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton & Company, 1853, →OCLC

   Sunderland’s right-back, Santiago Vergini, inadvertently gave Southampton the lead by lashing the ball into his own net in the 12th minute, and that signalled the start of a barmy encounter that had home fans in raptures and Sunderland in tatters.

   2014 October 18, Paul Doyle, “Southampton hammer eight past hapless Sunderland in barmy encounter”, in The Guardian

   My heart filled with rapture then, and it fills now as it has each of the countless times I have recalled those dear words, as it shall fill always until death has claimed me. I may never see her again; she may not know how I love her--she may question, she may doubt; but always true and steady, and warm with the fires of love my heart beats for the girl who said that night: "I love you beyond all conception."

   1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VII, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC

2. countableuncountableChristianityAlternative letter-case form of Rapture.

   In the last week, believers have linked Charlie Kirk’s assassination to the rapture theory: some on TikTok have suggested that Kirk, who in death became a martyr for Christian nationalists and whose memorial service veered into religious revival territory, could be resurrected during the rapture.

   2025 September 23, Alaina Demopoulos, “‘It’s prime time for rapture talk’: TikTok gets its first ‘world is ending’ moment”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

3. countableobsoleteuncountableThe act of kidnapping or abducting, especially the forceful carrying off of a woman.
4. countableobsoleteuncountableRape; ravishment; sexual violation.
5. countableobsoleteuncountableThe act of carrying, conveying, transporting or sweeping along by force of movement; the force of such movement; the fact of being carried along by such movement.

   With the rapture of great winds to blow / About earth's shaken coignes.

   1888, James Russell Lowell, Agassiz, 6.1.21

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   That 'gainst a rock, or flat, her keel did dash / With headlong rapture.

   1614–1615, Homer, “(please specify the book number)”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume (please specify the book number), London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC

6. countableuncountableA spasm; a fit; a syncope; delirium.

   Your pratling nurse Into a rapture lets her baby cry

   c. 1608–1609 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedy of Coriolanus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]

present singular third person raptures · participle present rapturing · participle past raptured · past raptured

1. datedtransitiveTo cause to experience great happiness or excitement.

   She raptured me in summer by giving me Fitzgerald's flawed and gorgeous masterpiece, the book that held his tortured heart.

   2012, The Books They Gave Me: True Stories of Life, Love, and Lit, page 138

2. datedintransitiveTo experience great happiness or excitement.
3. transitiveTo take (someone) off the Earth and bring (them) to Heaven as part of the Rapture.

   The third person raptured by God into heaven was Elijah […]

   2010, Gerald Mizejewski, Jerimiah Asher, Charting the Supernatural Judgements of Planet Earth, page 233

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   "If she's raptured," Ellen said to them on the fifth night after Marylee's disappearance, as they sat on the roof of the building on their old beanbags and rusting garden furniture hauled up from the Museum, "if that's what happened to her, then […]"

   2001, Allan Appel, Club Revelation: A Novel, page 320

   These fiction books told the story of some church people who were raptured but focused on the people who were not raptured.

   2007, Leon L. Combs, A Search For Reality, page 46

   “Praise the Lord, he's been raptured.” Good grief. “I don't think so, Mrs. Farris. 'Course, I'm Episcopalian, and I'm pretty sure we don't get raptured. But, Baptists get raptured, don't they?”

   2011, Lexi George, Demon Hunting in Dixie, →ISBN

4. intransitiverareTo take part in the Rapture; to leave Earth and go to Heaven as part of the Rapture.
5. uncommonTo state (something, transitive) or talk (intransitive) rapturously.

   Pulling her leggings down over unshaven legs, she raptured "I'm dry!" to her audience.

   2003, Jessica Peers, Asparagus Dreams, page 75

   2 more examples

   And then the flowers! May-day indeed. Hester had been in Switzerland at the end of June, years on years before, and often had she raptured to Effie about the day's ride, in which they collected a hundred varieties of flowers, most of them new to them.

   1885, Edward Everett Hale, G.T.T.; or, The Wonderful Adventures of a Pullman, page 158

   They're called angora with wonderfully long, soft fleece,” she raptured on about her first venture.

   2003, Beverly Adam, Irish Magic, page 121

1. ChristianityIn some forms of fundamentalist Protestant eschatology, a prophesied sudden removal of Christian believers from the Earth before the Tribulation or simultaneous with the second coming of Jesus Christ.

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   The end of the world will be at exactly 6 p.m. on May 21, 2011, says Camping, who along with his organization, Family Radio, are behind those billboards across the country forecasting the Rapture this Saturday. The Rapture, the Last Days, Armageddon and the Final Days of Judgment are all interchangeable. It's when God will destroy the Earth to show his love for humanity.

   2011 May 20, Tina Dupuy, “The Rapture Is Not Saturday; It's Tonight”, in The Atlantic, archived from the original on 10 Jan 2012

   Brian J Dunn points out an aspect of the Rapture I hadn't considered: thousands, even millions, of new housing vacancies coming onto an already oversaturated market. If you notice your more religious neighbors go missing at 6 pm this evening, you should be prepared for the possibility that not only will Satan be freely walking the earth for seven years as 75% of humanity perishes in earthquakes, fires, and plague, but also that home values could fall as much as another 10%, leading to further weakening of economic growth, and great financial hardship for families with underwater mortgages.

   2011 May 21, Megan McArdle, “The Housing Market is Not Rapture Ready”, in The Atlantic