| Library / English Dictionary |
TEMPTATION
| Pronunciation (US): |  | (GB): | |
I. (noun)
Sense 1
Meaning:
The act of influencing by exciting hope or desire
Example:
his enticements were shameless
Synonyms:
enticement; temptation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting acts or actions
Hypernyms ("temptation" is a kind of...):
influence (causing something without any direct or apparent effort)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "temptation"):
blandishment; wheedling (the act of urging by means of teasing or flattery)
leading astray; leading off (the act of enticing others into sinful ways)
seduction (enticing someone astray from right behavior)
allurement; solicitation (the act of enticing a person to do something wrong (as an offer of sex in return for money))
Derivation:
tempt (induce into action by using one's charm)
tempt (provoke someone to do something through (often false or exaggerated) promises or persuasion)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Something that seduces or has the quality to seduce
Synonyms:
enticement; temptation
Classified under:
Nouns denoting cognitive processes and contents
Hypernyms ("temptation" is a kind of...):
influence (a cognitive factor that tends to have an effect on what you do)
Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "temptation"):
forbidden fruit (originally an apple from the tree of knowledge of good and evil in the Garden of Eden; it is now used to refer to anything that is tempting but dangerous (as sexuality))
bait; come-on; hook; lure; sweetener (anything that serves as an enticement)
allurement (attractiveness)
Derivation:
tempt (give rise to a desire by being attractive or inviting)
Sense 3
Meaning:
The desire to have or do something that you know you should avoid
Example:
he felt the temptation and his will power weakened
Classified under:
Nouns denoting feelings and emotions
Hypernyms ("temptation" is a kind of...):
desire (the feeling that accompanies an unsatisfied state)
Derivation:
tempt (dispose or incline or entice to)
Context examples:
But the temptation of a discovery so singular and profound at last overcame the suggestions of alarm.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
He had taken little or no wine; and I presume it was the mere insolence of triumph that was upon him, flushed perhaps by the temptation my presence furnished to its exhibition.
(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)
There was cruelty in it, doubtless, and lust and sin and sorrow; but were there not virtues to atone, robust positive virtues which did not shrink from temptation, which held their own in all the rough blasts of the work-a-day world?
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
Fold your clothes when you go to bed, Roddy, and do not forget your evening prayers, for, oh, my dear boy, the days of temptation are at hand, when I will no longer be with you to help you.
(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
But she put down the dish of food and the glass of wine in front of him, and when he smelt the wine, he was unable to resist the temptation, and took a deep draught.
(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)
Curiosity and vanity were both engaged, and the temptation of immediate pleasure was too strong for a mind unused to make any sacrifice to right: he resolved to defer his Norfolk journey, resolved that writing should answer the purpose of it, or that its purpose was unimportant, and staid.
(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)
I could manage them very well, if it were not for Mary's interference, was what Anne often heard him say, and had a good deal of faith in; but when listening in turn to Mary's reproach of Charles spoils the children so that I cannot get them into any order, she never had the smallest temptation to say, Very true.
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
Therefore, since my acquaintance were pleased to think my poor endeavours might not be unacceptable to my country, I imposed on myself, as a maxim never to be swerved from, that I would strictly adhere to truth; neither indeed can I be ever under the least temptation to vary from it, while I retain in my mind the lectures and example of my noble master and the other illustrious Houyhnhnms of whom I had so long the honour to be an humble hearer.
(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)
I could not resist the temptation of mystifying him a bit—I suppose it is some of the taste of the original apple that remains still in our mouths—so I handed him the shorthand diary.
(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)
And those times are whenever he thinks it worth his while; whenever there is any temptation of pleasure.
(Emma, by Jane Austen)
