enthrall

• enthral (UK)
• inthrall (archaic)

From Middle English enthrallen, equivalent to en- +‎ thrall.

• IPA^(key): /ɪnˈθɹɔːl/

• Audio (Southern England):

  (file)

enthrall (third-person singular simple present enthralls, present participle enthralling, simple past and past participle enthralled) (transitive)

1. To hold spellbound.

   Synonyms: bewitch, captivate, charm, enchant, transfix

   • 1891, Oscar Wilde, chapter 5, in The Picture of Dorian Gray, London, New York, N.Y., Melbourne, Vic.: Ward Lock & Co., →OCLC:

     Fancy, Jim, to be in love and play Juliet! To have him sitting there! To play for his delight! I am afraid I may frighten the company, frighten or enthrall them.

   • 1913, Edgar Rice Burroughs, chapter 17, in The Return of Tarzan‎^[1]:

     In the center of the circle of glittering black bodies he leaped and roared and shook his heavy spear in the same mad abandon that enthralled his fellow savages. The last remnant of his civilization was forgotten—he was a primitive man to the fullest now; reveling in the freedom of the fierce, wild life he loved, gloating in his kingship among these wild blacks.

2. (now rare) To make subservient.

   Synonyms: enslave, subjugate

   Antonym: disenthrall

   • 1667, John Milton, “Book XII”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     […] Who oft as undeservedly enthrall / His outward freedom: Tyranny must be;

• Douglas Harper (2001–2024) “enthrall”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.