rape

Less common meanings

5. 5
   seize (things)verbarchaictransitive or intransitive

   To seize and carry off something or someone by force.

   Note

   Modern writers rarely use this verb of plain seizure innocently, because the sexual sense now shadows it. Alasdair Gray's "armaments raped from here" (1983) keeps the construction of taking something away from a place. Gore Vidal's Kalki (1978) gives a doctor who wants to "rape your attention," where the force is the point. Expect readers to hear both meanings at once. Source

   Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

   • Alasdair Gray used the quoted wording in “Logopandocy”. en.wiktionary.org
   • The Gray quotation dates to 1983, when Unlikely Stories, Mostly was first published. thealasdairgrayarchive.org
   • Gore Vidal wrote Kalki, first published in 1978. en.wikipedia.org
   • The quotation describes Dr Ashok wanting to seize someone's attention; it is narration, not something the doctor says. en.wiktionary.org
6. 6
   nounrarecountable or uncountable

   The act of seizing and carrying off something or someone by force.

   Ruin'd orphans of thy rapes complain.

   1638, George Sandys, A Paraphrase upon Job

   Few of the Teleri were willing to go forth to war, for they remembered the slaying at the Swanhaven, and the rape of their ships.

   1977, JRR Tolkien, The Silmarillion

   Note

   Seizure was the word's older center, which is why the Rape of the Sabine Women, the Roman legend of women carried off as wives, names an abduction. It survives mostly in the pattern the rape of plus a prize: Pope's The Rape of the Lock (1712), or Dorothy Parker's dismissive "rape of the dowager's emeralds" in 1959. George Sandys still used the plural in 1638 ("orphans of thy rapes complain"). The usage is now rare, so use it only where the darker echo is wanted. Source

   Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 7 facts

   • The word historically meant seizing or carrying off by force. en.wikipedia.org
   • The Rape of the Sabine Women is a Roman legend involving abduction. nationalgallery.org.uk
   • The women were abducted for marriage. en.wikipedia.org
   • Alexander Pope wrote The Rape of the Lock, first published in 1712. en.wikipedia.org
   • Dorothy Parker used the quoted phrase dismissively in 1959. en.wiktionary.org
   • George Sandys used the plural in the quoted wording. pulterproject.northwestern.edu
   • Sandys's A Paraphrase upon Job was first published in 1638. celm.folger.edu
7. 7
   nouncountablefigurative

   The merciless plundering, exploiting, or wrecking of something, such as a landscape, a city, a culture, or a principle.

   Environmental groups condemned the rape of the coastline by developers who paved over the dunes.

   Opposition senators denounced the bill as a rape of the Constitution.

   UsageUsually the rape of + what is ruined: the rape of the coastline; plunder or destruction is milder.

   Similardestruction, violation, despoliation, plunder

   Note

   The phrase continues the old "plunder" meaning, but today it lands with the full weight of the sexual meaning, which is why it turns up in protest and denunciation. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

   • Rape has an old sense meaning seizure or plunder, which survives in nonsexual uses. en.wiktionary.org
8. 8
   trounceverbslangoffensivetransitive

   To overpower or destroy someone; to defeat them utterly; to trounce.

   Their defense raped us in the second half. We didn't get a single shot off.

   Veteran players rape newcomers in ranked matches all the time.

   UsageHurtful to many listeners; in mixed or formal company say trounce or overpower.

   Similartrounce, thrash, crush, demolish, annihilate

9. 9
   put through hellverbslangoffensivetransitive

   To treat someone harshly or unfairly, including by exploiting their lack of choice, often for money.

   Once the storm closed the highway, the only motel in town started raping stranded travelers with triple rates.

   Ticket sites rape fans with service fees because they control every seat in the arena.

   Similargouge, fleece, soak

   Note

   Here the word names the experience of being overridden, and it is sometimes fenced with scare quotes. A mother in Samantha D. Gottlieb's chapter "Mothers and Gardasil" (2018) says she felt "raped" when she was forced over a vaccine. Source

   Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

   • Samantha D. Gottlieb wrote the chapter "Mothers and Gardasil" in Not Quite a Cancer Vaccine. rutgersuniversitypress.org
   • The book containing the chapter was published in 2018. rutgersuniversitypress.org
   • A mother in the chapter says she felt "raped" in connection with being forced over vaccination; specifically, Dionne reported being forced to give Tate vaccinations. en.wiktionary.org
10. 10
    nounslangoffensivecountable or uncountable

    Overwhelming domination of an opponent; utter, one-sided defeat.

    The rematch was sheer rape: they led by forty points at halftime.

    His chess match against the grandmaster was pure rape from the opening moves.

    Similarrout, thrashing, drubbing, massacre

    Note

    Slang that borrows the violence of the assault sense for a lopsided contest, framing it as an encounter enjoyed by one side and suffered by the other. Source

    Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 1 fact

    • The contest sense is a metaphorical extension of the sexual-assault sense. arnoldzwicky.org
11. 11
    nounslangoffensivecountable or uncountable

    An assault on the senses so severe that one feels permanently changed by it.

    The feedback from the broken speakers was pure ear rape, and half the crowd covered their ears.

    That website's flashing neon colors are eye rape, so I closed it after a few seconds.

    Similardesecration, violation, defilement

    Note

    Here the injury is to the senses rather than the body, and the word can follow the organ that suffered: ear rape is sound so loud or distorted that it hurts to hear.

12. 12
    nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    Something snatched or carried away; the spoil or prey of an act of seizing.

    Where now are all my hopes? O, never more. / Shall they revive! nor death her rapes restore.

    1636, G[eorge] S[andys], A Paraphrase upon the Psalmes of David

    Note

    The concrete twin of the "plunder" meaning names not the act of seizing but what was seized. George Sandys, in his 1630s verse paraphrases of scripture, uses it in the plural for what death has carried off: "nor death her rapes restore." It is obsolete. A modern writer wanting the idea would say spoils or prey. Source

    Checked 3 Nov 2026 · 3 facts

    • The concrete meaning denotes what was seized. dev.gutenberg.org
    • George Sandys published verse paraphrases of scripture in the 1630s. celm.folger.edu
    • Sandys used the plural rapes for what death has carried away, with the quoted wording. dev.gutenberg.org
13. 13
    nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    Haste or hurry, sometimes reckless.

    Note

    Haste pictured as the motion of snatching probably belongs with the Latin-rooted words of seizing. Yet a separate, Norse-born rape, from Old Norse hrapa, "to rush headlong," meant haste too, and also gave the obsolete verb "to hurry". The two nouns overlapped so fully that they are treated here as one. Their difference is ancestry: one snatches, the other falls headlong. Both are now obsolete. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 4 facts

    • Old Norse hrapa meant to rush headlong. en.wiktionary.org
    • The noun belonging to the Norse etymology meant haste or precipitancy. en.wiktionary.org
    • The verb meaning to hurry also derives from hrapa. en.wikisource.org
    • The two entries overlap in their meanings of haste and hurry. gutenberg.org
14. 14
    verbobsoleteintransitivereflexive

    To make haste; to hurry or move with speed.

    Note

    This obsolete verb of motion took no object, or else a reflexive one, the hurrier's own self. It goes back through Old Norse hrapa to a Proto-Germanic verb for falling down. Its relatives include Danish rappe, "to make haste," Norwegian rapa, "to slip, fall," and German rappeln, "to hasten." Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 5 facts

    • The hurry verb was intransitive or reflexive. en.wiktionary.org
    • The verb derives through Old Norse hrapa from a Proto-Germanic verb meaning to fall down. en.wiktionary.org
    • Danish rappe, meaning to make haste, is related. en.wiktionary.org
    • Norwegian rapa, meaning to slip or fall, is related. en.wiktionary.org
    • German rappeln, meaning to hasten or hurry, is related. en.wiktionary.org
15. 15
    adverbobsolete

    Quickly or hastily; with great speed.

    Note

    The adverb of the Norse haste family compared with more and most rather than with endings: more rape, most rape. It is obsolete, and quickly or hastily now does its work. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 2 facts

    • The adverb belongs to the word family derived from Old Norse hrapa, associated with hurrying. en.wiktionary.org
    • The comparative and superlative are more rape and most rape. en.wiktionary.org
16. 16
    nounobsoletecountable or uncountable

    Fruit plucked or gathered in a bunch, such as a cluster of grapes.

    Note

    This word for a cluster taken whole was used with of: a rape of grapes. It comes from the same rasping root as the winemaker's stalks and husks. It is obsolete, and bunch or cluster now does its work. Source

    Checked 31 Oct 2026 · 7 facts

    • Rape could mean fruit gathered as a bunch. en.wiktionary.org
    • A rape of grapes exemplifies the construction with of. en.wiktionary.org
    • John Ray wrote Methodus Plantarum Nova. wellcomecollection.org
    • The book was first published in 1682. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov
    • The phrase rape of Cistus occurs in Ray's book. e-rara.ch
    • Rape of Cistus is a plant name, referring to Cytinus hypocistis, rather than a cluster of Cistus fruit. kkl.org.il
    • The fruit-bunch sense shares the rasping etymology of the winemaking residue sense. en.wiktionary.org
17. 17
    nounslang

    In slang sometimes considered offensive, an experience one party enjoys while the other finds it unpleasant, particularly when the unwilling party suffers more than necessary.
18. 18
    noun

    The stalks and skins of grapes left after pressing, also packed into a filter for clearing wine or vinegar.
19. 19
    noun

    One of the six former administrative divisions of the English county of Sussex.

    It seems to me very clear that the rapes of Sussex were divisions already existing there when the Normans landed.

    1888, Henry H. Howorth, in a letter to The Archaeological Review