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Conditions for Wake Forest, NC, US
0 mph N | 0.1 mi
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enthrall
\in-THRAWL\ verb to hold in or reduce to slavery to hold spellbound : charm Example Sentence "For 40 years, the Romero Quartet has enthralled audiences with superb classical guitar playing." (David Stabler, The Oregonian [Portland Oregon], January 8, 2010) In Middle English, "enthrallen" meant "to hold in thrall." "Thrall" then, as now, meant "bondage" or "slavery"; it comes from an Old Norse word, "thraell," which is probably related to an Old High German word for servant. In the 16th century, the first known figurative use of "enthrall" appeared in the following advice, translated from a Latin text by Thomas Newton: "A man should not . . . enthrall his credit and honour to Harlots." But we rarely use even this sense of mental or moral enslavement anymore. Today the word is often used in its participle form, "enthralled," which sometimes means "temporarily spellbound" ("we listened, enthralled, to the old woman's oral history"), but more often suggests a state of being generally captivated, delighted, or taken by some particular thing. *Indicates the sense illustrated in the example sentence. powered by Merriam-Webster Online
The true road to pre-eminent success in any line
is to make yourself master of that line.
Andrew Carnegie (1837-1919) American Industrialist and Philanthropist |