| / English Dictionary |
FASCINATION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The capacity to attract intense interest
Example:
he held the children spellbound with magic tricks and other fascinations
Classified under:
Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects
Hypernyms ("fascination" is a kind of...):
attraction; attractiveness (the quality of arousing interest; being attractive or something that attracts)
Derivation:
fascinate (to render motionless, as with a fixed stare or by arousing terror or awe)
fascinate (cause to be interested or curious)
Sense 2
Meaning:
A feeling of great liking for something wonderful and unusual
Synonyms:
captivation; enchantment; enthrallment; fascination
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("fascination" is a kind of...):
liking (a feeling of pleasure and enjoyment)
Derivation:
fascinate (attract; cause to be enamored)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The state of being intensely interested (as by awe or terror)
Synonyms:
captivation; fascination
Classified under:
Nouns denoting stable states of affairs
Hypernyms ("fascination" is a kind of...):
enchantment; spell; trance (a psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation)
Derivation:
fascinate (to render motionless, as with a fixed stare or by arousing terror or awe)
fascinate (cause to be interested or curious)
Context examples:
I may say that he seemed to possess an extraordinary fascination for the Indian women, and that he always carried a large spreading palm branch with which he beat them off as if they were flies, when their attentions became too pressing.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Fanny went to her every two or three days: it seemed a kind of fascination: she could not be easy without going, and yet it was without loving her, without ever thinking like her, without any sense of obligation for being sought after now when nobody else was to be had; and deriving no higher pleasure from her conversation than occasional amusement, and that often at the expense of her judgment, when it was raised by pleasantry on people or subjects which she wished to be respected.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
My heart was cramped with my fears, and I winced at every blow, yet I was conscious also of an absolute fascination, with a wild thrill of fierce joy and a certain exultation in our common human nature which could rise above pain and fear in its straining after the very humblest form of fame.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
"There, that's enough," she urged, by an effort of will withdrawing herself from the fascination of his strength.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
But, seeing a light in the little round office, and immediately feeling myself attracted towards Uriah Heep, who had a sort of fascination for me, I went in there instead.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
So he delay, and delay, and delay, till the mere beauty and the fascination of the wanton Un-Dead have hypnotise him; and he remain on and on, till sunset come, and the Vampire sleep be over.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
It was not until the night had fallen, and the fires of our savage allies glowed red in the shadows, that our two men of science could be dragged away from the fascinations of that primeval lake.
(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
No charm was wanting, no defect was perceptible; the young girl had regular and delicate lineaments; eyes shaped and coloured as we see them in lovely pictures, large, and dark, and full; the long and shadowy eyelash which encircles a fine eye with so soft a fascination; the pencilled brow which gives such clearness; the white smooth forehead, which adds such repose to the livelier beauties of tint and ray; the cheek oval, fresh, and smooth; the lips, fresh too, ruddy, healthy, sweetly formed; the even and gleaming teeth without flaw; the small dimpled chin; the ornament of rich, plenteous tresses—all advantages, in short, which, combined, realise the ideal of beauty, were fully hers.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
And Edmund, silenced, was obliged to acknowledge that the charm of acting might well carry fascination to the mind of genius; and with the ingenuity of love, to dwell more on the obliging, accommodating purport of the message than on anything else.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
And yet, through her very terror ran the fibres of fascination that had drawn and that still drew her to him—that had compelled her to lean towards him, and, in that mad, culminating moment, lay her hands upon his neck.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
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