infatuated

English

Etymology

From infatuate + -ed.

Verb

infatuated

  1. simple past tense and past participle of infatuate

Adjective

infatuated (comparative more infatuated, superlative most infatuated)

  1. Foolishly or unreasoningly attracted to or in love with (someone)
    • 1771, Elizabeth Griffith, The History of Lady Barton, London: T. Davies & T. Cadell, Volume 3, Letter 60, p. 40,
      [] I did not know her then, or I could never have been so infatuated as I was, to a creature so every way her inferior []
    • 1892, Oscar Wilde, Lady Windermere’s Fan, Act I,
      Augustus—you know my disreputable brother—such a trial to us all—well, Augustus is completely infatuated about her.
    • 1908, Lucy Maud Montgomery, Anne of Green Gables, London: L.C. Page & Co., Chapter 13, p. 115,
      I never saw such an infatuated man. The more she talks and the odder the things she says, the more he’s delighted evidently.
    • 1932, Dorothy L. Sayers, Have His Carcase, New York: Avon, Chapter 10, p. 95,
      Why, the poor woman was infatuated with him. He could have turned her round his little finger. She'd have given him anything he wanted.
  2. Excessively fond of or enthusiastic about (something).
    • 1703, Joseph Addison, Remarks on Several Parts of Italy, London: J. Tonson, pp. 390-391,
      Before I leave Switzerland I cannot but observe, that the Notion of Witchcraft reigns very much in this Country. [] The People are so universally infatuated with the Notion, that if a Cow falls sick, it is Ten to One but an Old Woman is clapt up in Prison for it []
    • 1876, Mark Twain, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Hartford, Connecticut: The American Publishing Company, Chapter 12, p. 108,
      She was one of those people who are infatuated with patent medicines and all new-fangled methods of producing health or mending it.
  3. (obsolete) Foolish, stupid, lacking good judgement (often as a result of some external influence).
    • 1660, John Milton, The Ready and Easy Way to Establish a Free Commonwealth, London, p. 32,
      [] that people must needs be madd or strangely infatuated, that build the chief hope of thir common happiness or safetie on a single person []
    • 1763, Oliver Goldsmith, The Martial Review: or, A General History of the Late Wars, London: J. Newbery, p. 64,
      It is possible, that had they not been so infatuated, as to imagine they could retrieve in Germany all that they had lost in America, the British court in the beginning of the year 1759 might have listened to terms of accommodation.
    • 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick, Chapter 110,
      So deep did they go; and so ancient, and corroded, and weedy the aspect of the lowermost puncheons, that you almost looked next for some mouldy corner-stone cask containing coins of Captain Noah, with copies of the posted placards, vainly warning the infatuated old world from the flood.

Synonyms

Translations

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