Captivate

//ˈkæptɪveɪt// adj, verb

adj, verb ·Moderate ·High school level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To make (a person, an animal, etc.) a captive; to take prisoner; to capture, to subdue. obsolete, transitive

    "Hovv ill-beſeeming is it in thy Sex, / To triumph like an Amazonian Trull, / Vpon their VVoes, vvhom Fortune captiuates?"

  2. 2
    attract; cause to be enamored wordnet
  3. 3
    To capture or control (the mind, etc.); to subdue, to subjugate. figuratively, obsolete, transitive

    "Hee hath no skill in Rhetoricke, nor can hee vvith a preface fore-ſtall and captivate the Gentle Readers good vvill: nor careth he greatly to knovve it."

  4. 4
    To attract and hold (someone's) attention and interest; to charm, to entrance, to fascinate, to enchain. figuratively, transitive

    "Hir ſlippers rauyſhed his eyes, hir bewtye captyuated his mynde, with the swerde ſmote ſhe of his neck."

Adjective
  1. 1
    Made captive; taken prisoner; captured, subdued. also, figuratively, obsolete, transitive

    "Tuſh, vvomen haue bene captiuate ere novv."

Synonyms

All synonyms
enamourenchantfascinateallureargue intoattract

Antonyms

All antonyms
enrage

Example

More examples

"He knows how to captivate his audience."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Learned borrowing from Late Latin captīvātus, the perfect passive participle of captīvō (“to capture”), from Latin captīvus (“captive, prisoner”) (ultimately from capiō (“to capture, seize”), from Proto-Indo-European *kap- (“to hold; to seize”)) + -ō (suffix forming first-conjugation verbs). Equivalent to captive + -ate (verb-forming suffix).

Etymology 2

See Etymology 1. Equivalent to captive + -ate (adjective-forming suffix)

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.