Ravishing

I love the word ravishing - and I think it really fits the spirit of what I'm trying to get at. ❋ Sage (2008)

In his house, my son, my own son, the flower of the House of Lancaster, learns to speak of the usurper with respect, to admire the so-called ravishing beauty of his hastily married wife, the commoner Elizabeth, and to pray for an heir for their accursed house. ❋ Philippa Gregory (2010)

“I like the idea of ravishing you in the firelight.” ❋ JoAnn Ross (2003)

Your nose is bridged in that so-called ravishing way in order to let a stream of air into your lungs. ❋ Stephen French Whitman (N/A)

"She's what you might call ravishing," proclaimed Ruby. ❋ George Barr McCutcheon (1897)

Then he told me that he had arrived in the Valley on the noon of the day before, had found it grand and beautiful beyond all his dreams, -- 'ravishing' was one of his words, -- and was going out again, not of necessity but from choice, that very afternoon. ❋ Unknown (1910)

Vigée-Lebrun's "ravishing" portrait of herself and her little girl, with how can I say what foretaste (as determined by that instant as if the hour had struck from a clock) of all the fun, confusedly speaking, that one was going to have, and the kind of life, always of the queer so-called inward sort, tremendously "sporting" in its way -- though that description didn't then wait upon it, that one was going to lead. ❋ Henry James (1879)

She had thought seriously of surprising and delighting everyone by appearing in a costume which should do justice to the loveliness which was so modest that it was apt to forget itself in admiring others – what girls call a "ravishing" dress, such as she could imagine and easily procure by the magic of the Fortunatus 'purse in her pocket. ❋ Unknown (1876)

She had thought seriously of surprising and delighting everyone by appearing in a costume which should do justice to the loveliness which was so modest that it was apt to forget itself in admiring others what girls call a "ravishing" dress, such as she could imagine and easily procure by the magic of the Fortunatus 'purse in her pocket. ❋ Alcott, Louisa May, 1832-1888 (1876)

Best known for its innovative and award-winning exhibitions, which have been described by Roberta Smith in The New York Times as "ravishing," the museum has a collection of more than 50,000 garments and accessories dating from the 18th century to the present. ❋ Unknown (2009)

Yet Sophie somehow contrives to do it the wrong way, meaning that she's toast at toast. "horrible about Stephen Gately after his death in Majorca last October - could hardly complain about Dahl's looks, and indeed admitted she was" ravishing ". ❋ Unknown (2010)

The American publication in 1806 of the British legal manual A Treatise of the Pleas of the Crown, declared that “a husband cannot by law be guilty of ravishing his wife, on account of the matrimonial consent which she cannot retract.” ❋ Thaddeus Russell (2010)

This piece adds a single Chinese-opera singer; and for all that she sings beautifully only twice, and declaims the rest of the time, making the noise of a particularly unhappy cat, it is a convincing meld of East and West, and a ravishing spectacle few in the audience will forget. ❋ Paul Levy (2011)

I hope this photo of a ravishing "roseburst" (taken yesterday, just outside the orthodontist's office in the French town of Orange ...) will make up for that! le rosier (leuh rhoh-zee-ay) noun, masculine ❋ Unknown (2009)

We'd been to the zoo and thought the tigers were ravishing. ❋ Unknown (2011)

At first the children frustrate her, but they quickly bond during an extravagant shopping spree in which she transforms from homely geek to ravishing siren. ❋ Kristen Dillman (2011)

Kim, whose mane of caramel hair makes her a ravishing Rapunzel, knows what it's like to be alone -- she's a never-married single who hasn't been in a serious relationship for a decade -- so she decided to do something about it. ❋ Nancy Ruhling (2011)

Part of that has to do with Gil's vision, fleshed out by the ravishing Bolivian locations where he filmed. ❋ Marshall Fine (2011)