rape

1 of 4

noun (1)

ˈrāp 

1

: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against a person's will or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception compare sexual assault, statutory rape

2

: an outrageous violation

3

: an act or instance of robbing or despoiling or carrying away a person by force

rape

2 of 4

verb

raped; raping

transitive verb

1

: to commit rape on

2

a

: despoil

b

archaic : to seize and take away by force

raper noun

rape

3 of 4

noun (2)

: an Old World herb (Brassica napus) of the mustard family grown as a forage crop and for its seeds which yield rapeseed oil and are a bird food compare canola

rape

4 of 4

noun (3)

: the pomace of grapes left after expression of the juice

Synonyms

Noun (1)

• assault
• ravishment
• sexual assault
• violation

Verb

• assault
• force
• ravish
• violate

Examples of rape in a Sentence

Verb

He is accused of raping the girl.

She was raped by a fellow student.

Recent Examples on the Web

Verb

International bodies issued toothless statements of concern as Myanmar’s military reportedly burned entire villages, dropped bombs indiscriminately, and raped civilians. —Timothy McLaughlin, The Atlantic, 4 Apr. 2024

Joi Dickerson-Neal accused Combs in a suit of drugging and raping her in 1991, recording the attack and then distributing the footage without her consent. —Nardine Saad, Los Angeles Times, 2 Apr. 2024

On March 28, 1986, four men forced their way into an apartment on Briarwood Road in what is now the City of Brookhaven, held five students at gunpoint, and raped two young women before ransacking the apartment, according to the release. —Alisha Ebrahimji, CNN, 31 Mar. 2024

Over the course of the film, her character is stripped nude, raped, and beaten. —EW.com, 28 Mar. 2024

Grammy Award-winning singer Duffy returned to social media in March 2024, four years after sharing her experience being kidnapped and raped Duffy is making a return four years after opening up about her traumatic experiences. —Rebecca Aizin, Peoplemag, 28 Mar. 2024

Joi Dickerson-Neal accused Combs in a lawsuit of drugging and raping her in 1991, recording the attack and then distributing the footage without her consent. —Jay Weaver, Miami Herald, 26 Mar. 2024

Soldiers recruited from Senegal have been brought in to supplement the French troops, and, during a raid, a Senegalese soldier named Souleymane rapes a young Algerian Berber woman named Fatima. —Richard Brody, The New Yorker, 20 Mar. 2024

Ashley, who was 11 weeks pregnant at the time, said she was raped by a stranger in the yard of the family's home. —Rachel Scott, ABC News, 22 Mar. 2024

Noun

He was later charged with two felony counts of kidnapping with intent to commit rape – one each for Shasta and Dylan. —Angel Saunders, Peoplemag, 5 Apr. 2024

The charges include rape, criminal confinement, two counts of official misconduct, making an unlawful proposition, public indecency and public nudity. —Sarah Nelson, The Indianapolis Star, 3 Apr. 2024

Rumors of a rape then circulated, Rowland was arrested, and White Tulsans formed a lynch mob. —Omar Jimenez, CNN, 1 Apr. 2024

The mass murder and rape and kidnapping of Israelis on that day had already been well documented. —Gal Beckerman, The Atlantic, 28 Mar. 2024

But his ugly and sexist comments about his accuser’s appearance and motives prompted activists to denounce him for reinforcing and normalizing a culture of rape. —Ayen Deng Bior, The Christian Science Monitor, 22 Mar. 2024

Willie James Pye, a Georgia man convicted and sentenced to die for the 1993 abduction, rape and murder of his former girlfriend, was executed Wednesday night at a prison in Jackson, the Georgia Department of Corrections said in a statement. —Andrew Jeong, Washington Post, 21 Mar. 2024

He was previously convicted of a 1994 rape in New York. —Nancy Dillon, Rolling Stone, 23 Mar. 2024

The two suspects are facing charges that include kidnapping, rape by force/fear, possession of methamphetamine and assault with a deadly weapon. —John Metcalfe, The Mercury News, 23 Mar. 2024

Word History

Etymology

Noun (1)

Middle English, "violent seizure, abduction of a woman with the intent of sexually assaulting her," borrowed from Anglo-French rap, rape, probably borrowed from Medieval Latin rapum, noun derivative of rapiō, rapere "to seize and carry off, abduct a woman with the intent of sexually assaulting her" — more at rape entry 2

Note: Use of this word in its most predominant modern meaning is attested early in legal Anglo-French and British Medieval Latin, though the precise derivational pathways are uncertain. The Latin word may have been based on the Anglo-French word, but both must ultimately be dependent on the classical Latin verb. Note that rapum exists alongside classical Latin raptus, the regularly derived u-stem verbal noun, used in British Medieval Latin in the sense "rape." Compare ravish.

Verb

Middle English rapen "to abduct a woman with the intent of sexually assaulting her," borrowed from Anglo-French raper, borrowed from Medieval Latin rapiō, rapere "to seize and carry off, abduct a woman with of the intent of sexually assaulting her," going back to Latin, "to seize and carry off, take away by force, carry off a woman with the intent of sexually assaulting her, carry or sweep along, impel forcibly (to a course of conduct), snatch up, gather quickly" — more at rapid entry 1

Note: The verb rapen in its predominant modern sense is rare in Middle English, the more common verb meaning "to rape" being ravisshen "to ravish." The Middle English Dictionary lists rapen with a meaning "to carry off, transport (the soul to heaven)," but all forms cited are for a past participle rapt, rapte, which appears to have been borrowed directly from Medieval Latin raptus, past participle of rapere in this sense (see rapt). See also the note at rape entry 1.

Noun (2)

Middle English, "turnip, Brassica napus," borrowed from Latin rāpa, rāpum "turnip"; akin to Germanic *rōbjōn- "turnip" (whence Middle Dutch & Middle Low German rove, Old High German ruoba, ruoppa), Lithuanian rópė, Greek rháphys, rhápys (all going back to an earlier *rāp(h)-), Church Slavic (eastern) rěpa, Polish rzepa (going back to *rēp-), Welsh erfin "turnips, rape," Breton irvin (going back to *arb-īno-, perhaps metathesized from *rab-), all from a substratal pre-Indo-European word of uncertain form

Note: The Greek forms with fluctuating aspiration, as well as the derivative rháphanos "any of various cultivars of Brassica oleracea, radish," with the suffix -anos, argue for membership in the same pre-Greek substratum as a number of other Greek words; whether the other European forms are borrowed from this etymon or are part of a more general substratum is unclear (see Robert Beekes, Etymological Dictionary of Greek, Brill, 2010, p. 1277). Not related to Old Norse rófa "tail" (see Guus Kroonen, Etymological Dictionary of Proto-Germanic, Brill, 2013, p. 415).

Noun (3)

French râpe grape stalk

First Known Use

Noun (1)

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 3

Verb

14th century, in the meaning defined at sense 2b

Noun (2)

14th century, in the meaning defined above

Noun (3)

1657, in the meaning defined above

Phrases Containing rape

• date rape
• gang rape
• acquaintance rape
• statutory rape
• date rape drug
• anti-rape
• oilseed rape

Kids Definition

rape

1 of 3 noun

ˈrāp 

: an herb related to the mustards that is grown for animals to graze on and for its seeds which are used as birdseed and as a source of oil

compare canola

rape

2 of 3 verb

raped; raping

1

archaic : to take away by force

2

: to have sexual relations with by force

raper noun

rapist

ˈrā-pəst 

noun

rape

3 of 3 noun

: an act or instance of raping

Etymology

Noun

Middle English rape "the herb rape," from Latin rapa, rapum "turnip, rape"

Verb

Middle English rapen "to take away by force," from Latin rapere "to seize"

Medical Definition

rape

1 of 3 noun

ˈrāp 

: a European herb (Brassica napus) of the mustard family grown as a forage crop and for its seeds which yield rapeseed oil and are a bird food see canola sense 1

rape

2 of 3 transitive verb

raped; raping

: to commit rape on

rape

3 of 3 noun

: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent compare sexual assault, statutory rape

Legal Definition

rape

1 of 2 transitive verb

raped; raping

: to commit rape on

raper noun

rapist noun

rape

2 of 2 noun

: unlawful sexual activity and usually sexual intercourse carried out forcibly or under threat of injury against the will usually of a female or with a person who is beneath a certain age or incapable of valid consent because of mental illness, mental deficiency, intoxication, unconsciousness, or deception see also statutory rape

Note: The common-law crime of rape involved a man having carnal knowledge of a woman not his wife through force and against her will, and required at least slight penetration of the penis into the vagina. While some states maintain essentially this definition of rape, most have broadened its scope especially in terms of the sex of the persons and the nature of the acts involved. Marital status is usually irrelevant. Moreover, the crime is codified under various names, including first degree sexual assault, sexual battery, unlawful sexual intercourse, and first degree sexual abuse.

Etymology

Transitive verb

Latin rapere to seize and take away by force