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 of rape

Noun (1)

• violation
• assault

Verb

• violate
• assault
• force

Examples of rape in a Sentence

Noun (1)

an international law defining rape as a war crime

the legend of the rape of the Sabine women by the ancient Romans was frequently depicted in classical art

Verb

He is accused of raping the girl.

She was raped by a fellow student.

Recent Examples on the Web

Noun

The cold case was broken in 2024 when DNA from genetic genealogy connected Gale to the rapes. —Neal Riley, CBS News, 24 Mar. 2026

She was granted three emergency protective orders and sought medical attention for injuries sustained during a rape and multiple beatings. —Pamela Colloff, ProPublica, 24 Mar. 2026

Alvarado was arrested on June 13 and charged with two counts of rape of a person incapable of giving consent and committing a lewd act on a dependent adult related to a June 10 incident, according to the criminal complaint. —Cierra Morgan, Los Angeles Times, 23 Mar. 2026

The drugging and rape occurred the same night Cosby recorded what would become his best-selling album Inside the Mind of Bill Cosby. —Dominic Patten, Deadline, 23 Mar. 2026

The text messages contained jokes about gas chambers, slavery, and rape. —Peter Wehner, The Atlantic, 23 Mar. 2026

Harms was convicted of the 2011 and 2019 rapes in Sacramento Superior Court in 2022. —Darrell Smith, Sacbee.com, 23 Mar. 2026

The newspaper also includes a claim of rape by Huerta, who is soon to turn 96 and was known to be Chávez’s closest female ally in his workers’ rights movement. —Joseph Hernandez, Kansas City Star, 21 Mar. 2026

Although Julie was found only partially clothed, The Daily Pennsylvanian reported at the time that the medical examiner’s office found no evidence of rape. —Annalise Peterson, NBC news, 21 Mar. 2026

Verb

The dueling settlement offers from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Oakland and the hundreds of East Bay parishioners who say they were raped and abused by its priests are still separated by at least $90 million — and possibly tens of millions more, court records show. —Jakob Rodgers, Mercury News, 22 Mar. 2026

This week, the New York Times reported that one of the most revered figures in the history of the American left — a man whose name is on schools, streets, and state holidays — raped Dolores Huerta. —Rachel O'Leary Carmona, Rolling Stone, 22 Mar. 2026

Chavez is accused of molesting or raping young girls and civil rights hero Dolores Huerta, according to a New York Times story published Wednesday. —Ishani Desai, Sacbee.com, 21 Mar. 2026

Fellow civil rights activist Dolores Huerta accused Chavez of raping her in 1966. —Irene Wright, USA Today, 20 Mar. 2026

My mother — her mother was raped in the last days of the war in Czechoslovakia. —Daniel D'addario, Variety, 19 Mar. 2026

Huerta, 95, who co-founded a labor organization with Chavez that would later merge with United Farm Workers, has also alleged she was raped by Chavez in the 1960s, which led to two pregnancies. —Chelsea Hylton, CBS News, 19 Mar. 2026

In most academic histories of European imperialism written in this century, the Europeans are the barbarians, killing and raping and looting on an unprecedented scale. —David A. Bell, The New York Review of Books, 19 Mar. 2026

Earlier this week, Huerta disclosed to the New York Times that fellow Chicano civil rights icon Cesar Chavez raped her during the 1960s. —Gustavo Arellano, Los Angeles Times, 19 Mar. 2026

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

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

Rhymes for rape

• ape
• cape
• crape
• crepe
• drape
• gape
• grape
• pape
• scape
• scrape
• shape
• snape

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