[f. L. fascināt- ppl. stem of fascināre to enchant, f. fascinum spell, witchcraft. Cf. F. fasciner.]
† 1. trans. To affect by witchcraft or magic; to bewitch, enchant lay under a spell. Obs.
1598. B. Jonson, Ev. Man in Hum., IV. ix. I was fascinated, by Jupiter: fascinated: but I will be unwitch’d, and reveng’d, by law.
1621–51. Burton, Anat. Met., I. ii. III. ii. 96. Why do witches and old women, fascinate and bewitch children?
1657. Tomlinson, Renou’s Disp., 108. Perfumers, Chamberers, and such as would take away wrinkles from old women with painting, and promise to fascinate and cure stinking breaths, make several Powders of suaveolent Spices.
2. † a. To cast a spell over (a person, animal, etc.) by a look; said esp. of serpents. b. In later use disconnected from the notion of witchcraft: To deprive of the power of escape or resistance, as serpents are said to do through the terror produced by their look or merely by their perceived presence.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 17. Man is a Cockatrice, a Serpent, a Basilisk, biting the heele, and stinging the face, and fascinating with an envious eye the prosperity of his neighbour.
1845. Todd & Bowman, Physiol. Anat., I. xii. 390. The serpent fascinates its prey, apparently by the power of his eyes.
1848. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., II. 582. James, while his fate was under discussion, remained at Whitehall, fascinated, as it seemed, by the greatness and nearness of the danger, and unequal to the exertion of either struggling or flying.
1857. H. Reed, Lect. Eng. Poets, II. xii. 124. The pet dove of the castle—fascinated in the forest by a serpent, and fluttering and writhing in its toils.
3. fig. † a. To enslave (the faculties), the judgment of (a person) (obs.). b. To attract and retain the attention of (a person) by an irresistible influence. c. Now usually, To attract and ‘hold spellbound’ by delightful qualities; to charm, enchant.
a. 1651. Reliq. Wotton, Disp. Buckhm. & Essex, 54. A certain innate wisdom and vertue … with which he … fascinated all the faculties of his incomparable master.
1789. Bentham, Princ. Legisl., xviii. § 44, note. Aristotle, fascinated by the prejudice of the times, divides mankind into … freemen and … slaves.
b. 1847. Emerson, Repr. Men, Napoleon, Wks. (Bohn), I. 378. He delighted to fascinate Josephine and her ladies, in a dim-lighted apartment, by the terrors of a fiction, to which his voice and dramatic power lent every addition.
1862. Burton, Book-Hunter (1863), 111. Has come up a passage which fascinates the finder as the eye of the Ancient Mariner fascinated the wedding-guest, and compels him to stand there poised on his uneasy perch and read.
c. 1815. Moore, Lalla R. (1824), 30.
| Illum’d by a wit that would fascinate sages, | |
| Yet playful at Peris just loosed from their cages. |
1832. Lytton, Eugene A., I. v. The gay Ellinor was fascinated into admiration.
1874. Morley, Compromise (1886), Introductory, 23. They were not merely written in books; they so fascinated the imagination and inflamed the hopes of the time, that thousands of men were willing actually to go down into the streets and to shed their blood for the realisation of their generous dream of a renovated society.
absol. 1875. Emerson, Lett. & Soc. Aims, Eloquence, Wks. (Bohn), III. 189 This power [eloquence] which so fascinates and astonishes and commands is only the exaggeration of a talent which is universal.
