Rhapsodize
verb ·3 syllables ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To speak with exaggerated or rapturous enthusiasm (about, (up)on or over something). British, English, Oxford, US, intransitive
"The evergreen! How beautiful, how welcome, how wonderful the evergreen! […] You will think me rhapsodizing; but when I am out of doors, especially when I am sitting out of doors, I am very apt to get into this sort of wondering strain."
- 2 say (something) with great enthusiasm wordnet
- 3 To say (something) with exaggerated or rapturous enthusiasm. British, English, Oxford, US, transitive
"“It’s a long time since I tasted such a borshtch! Simply a vivifier! It melts in every limb!”" he kept rhapsodizing, between mouthfuls. “It ought to be sent to the Chicago Exposition. The missess would get a medal.”"
- 4 recite a rhapsody wordnet
- 5 To recount or describe (something) as a rhapsody, or in the manner of a rhapsody. British, English, Oxford, US, transitive
"The campaigns themselves will take up as many books; and therefore I apprehend it would be hanging too great a weight of one kind of matter in so flimsy a performance as this, to rhapsodize them, as I once intended, into the body of the work […]"
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- 6 To perform a rhapsody. British, English, Oxford, US, intransitive
"[…] Carolan, the last of the Irish bards, rhapsodized in the halls of the O’Connors so lately as the year 1730."
Example
More examples"The evergreen! How beautiful, how welcome, how wonderful the evergreen! […] You will think me rhapsodizing; but when I am out of doors, especially when I am sitting out of doors, I am very apt to get into this sort of wondering strain."
Etymology
From rhapsody + -ize.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.