[syn: rape, violation, assault, ravishment]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Ravishment \Rav"ish*ment\ (-ment), n. [F. ravissement. See
Ravish.]
[1913 Webster]
1. The act of carrying away by force or against consent;
abduction; as, the ravishment of children from their
parents, of a ward from his guardian, or of a wife from
her husband. --Blackstone.
[1913 Webster]
2. The state of being ravished; rapture; transport of
delight; ecstasy. --Spenser.
[1913 Webster]
In whose sight all things joy, with ravishment
Attracted by thy beauty still to gaze. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. The act of ravishing a woman; rape.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
ravishment
n 1: a feeling of delight at being filled with wonder and
enchantment [syn: entrancement, ravishment]
2: the crime of forcing a woman to submit to sexual intercourse
against her will [syn: rape, violation, assault,
ravishment]
Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0:
101 Moby Thesaurus words for "ravishment":
abandon, abuse, banditry, beatification, beatitude, betrayal,
bewitchment, blessedness, bliss, blissfulness, brigandage,
brigandism, cheer, cheerfulness, cloud nine, craze,
criminal assault, debauchment, defilement, defloration,
deflowering, deflowerment, delectation, delight, delirium,
depredation, despoiling, despoilment, despoliation, devirgination,
direption, ecstasy, ecstatics, elation, enchantment, exaltation,
exhilaration, exuberance, felicity, fire and fury, foraging, foray,
freebooting, frenzy, furor, furore, fury, gaiety, gladness, glee,
happiness, heaven, high spirits, hysteria, intoxication, joy,
joyance, joyfulness, looting, madness, marauding, orgasm, orgy,
overhappiness, overjoyfulness, paradise, passion, pillage,
pillaging, plunder, plundering, priapism, rage, raid, raiding,
ransacking, rape, rapine, rapture, ravage, ravagement, ravaging,
razzia, reiving, rifling, sack, sacking, seducement, seduction,
seventh heaven, sexual assault, sexual possession, spoiling,
spoliation, sunshine, taking, tearing passion, towering rage,
transport, unalloyed happiness, violation
Bouvier's Law Dictionary, Revised 6th Ed (1856):
RAVISHMENT, crim. law. This word has several meanings. 1. It is an unlawful
taking of a woman, or an heir in ward. 2. It is sometimes used synonymously
with rape.