Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- transitive verb To spellbind; enthrall.
- transitive verb To hypnotize.
from The Century Dictionary.
- To practise mesmerism upon; bring into a mesmeric state; hypnotize. Also spelled
mesmerise .
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- transitive verb To bring into a state of mesmeric sleep; to hypnotize.
- transitive verb To produce an intense fascination in; to spellbind.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- verb To exercise
mesmerism on; tospellbind ; toenthrall .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- verb induce hypnosis in
- verb attract strongly, as if with a magnet
Etymologies
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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Or that the word mesmerize comes from the German hypnotist Franz Anton Mesmer?
Archive 2006-10-01 The Nag 2006
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Or that the word mesmerize comes from the German hypnotist Franz Anton Mesmer?
Words We Know by Name The Nag 2006
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All the employees, right down to the cook, have been taught to 'mesmerize' patients to the point where they are in a state of complete anesthesia.
Mind Over Matter Hacking, Ian 1999
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But as the controversy continues to mesmerize and roil the cyber miasma, I have come to another conclusion that I believe is worth tossing into the cauldron apologies for mixing my metaphors.
Dr. Jim Taylor: Tiger Mom Is A Scaredy Cat Dr. Jim Taylor 2011
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"The perfidy and mendacity that follow mesmerize as much as they ring true."
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The latter ray also allows Ultron to mesmerize and outright mind-control his victims, or implant subliminal hypnotic commands within their minds to be enacted at a later time.
Hero/Villain of the Week! « Giant Killer Squid - Film, Comics, News, Reviews and more 2009
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So it's only natural that the Republicans are looking high and low for a leader to bring them back, and right now, they'll take anybody, including a radio talk-show host with enough lung power to mesmerize the masses and enough ego to think that he could actually wrestle the spotlight away from a very popular president.
Fools Rush In 2009
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Not only is she an Arab-American, but she could mesmerize the Israelis and Arabs into a peace deal. nbt Says:
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These poor kids are … learning from each other that their worth (in the eyes of the opposite sex) is found solely in the skin they expose and how they physically mesmerize the other.
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ESPN's famous hype can't always mesmerize — recall the fates of Cold Pizza, Arena Football, Stephen A. Smith and ESPNHollywood — but it can always pound away.
It's ESPN/ABC's turn to deal with falling NASCAR Sprint Cup ratings 2009
milosrdenstvi commented on the word mesmerize
Named for Franz Mesmer, early hypnotism researcher.
November 19, 2009
nickbomb commented on the word mesmerize
cool
December 30, 2009
sparrows commented on the word mesmerize
For an excellent story about Anton Mesmer, mesmerization, "animal magnetism", and controlled clinical trials (of a sort), see RadioLab's show on placebos, December 2009.
January 12, 2012