Ecstasy
Alternative forms
Origin
From Old French estaise ("ecstasy, rapture"), from Late Latin extasis, from Ancient Greek ἔκστασις, from á¼Î¾Î¯ÏƒÏ„ημι (eksistÄ“mi, "I displace"), from á¼Îº (ek, "out") and ἵστημι (histÄ“mi, "I stand").
Full definition of ecstasy
Noun
ecstasy
(countable and uncountable; plural ecstasys)- Intense pleasure.
- ShakespeareThis is the very ecstasy of love.
- MiltonHe on the tender grass
Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy. - A state of emotion so intense that a person is carried beyond rational thought and self-control.
- Drydenlike a mad prophet in an ecstasy
- A trance, frenzy, or rapture associated with mystic or prophetic exaltation.
- (obsolete) Violent emotion or distraction of mind; excessive grief from anxiety; insanity; madness.
- ShakespeareThat unmatched form and feature of blown youth
Blasted with ecstasy. - MarloweOur words will but increase his ecstasy.
- (slang) The drug MDMA, a synthetic entactogen of the phenethylamine family.
- (medicine, dated) A state in which sensibility, voluntary motion, and (largely) mental power are suspended; the body is erect and inflexible; but the pulse and breathing are not affected.
Antonyms
- (intense pleasure) agony