• IPA: /ɹeɪp/

From Middle English rapen, rappen ("to abduct; ravish; seduce; rape; seize; snatch; carry off; transport"), probably from Latin rapere (verb), possibly through or influenced by Anglo-Norman - rap, rape (noun) (compare also ravish).

rape

1. The act of forcing sex upon another person without their consent or against their will; originally coitus forced by a man on a woman, but now generally any sex act forced by any person upon another person; by extension, any non-consensual sex act forced on or perpetrated by any being. [from 15th c.]
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book II”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC ↗; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC ↗:

     I fled; but he pursued (though more, it seems,
     Inflamed with lust than rage), and, swifter far,
     Me overtook, his mother, all dismayed,
     And, in embraces forcible and foul
     Engendering with me, of that rape begot
     These yelling monsters […]

2. (men's slang, sometimes, offensive) An experience that is pleasant for one party and unpleasant for the other, particularly when the unwilling partner's suffering is worse than necessary.
   1. Overpowerment; utter defeat.
   2. An insult to one's senses so severe that one feels that they cannot ever be the same afterwards.

      The ear rape of that concert was so bad I can't even listen to their songs at work anymore.

3. (now, rare) The taking of something by force; seizure, plunder. [from early 14th c.]

   the Rape of Nanking

   • 1638, George Sandys, chapter XXII, in A Paraphrase upon Job:

     Ruin'd orphans of thy rapes complain.

   • 1712, Alexander Pope, The Rape of the Lock:
   • 1977, JRR Tolkien, The Silmarillion:

     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.

4. (now, archaic) The abduction of a woman, especially for sexual purposes. [from 15th c.]
   • c. 1588–1593 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Lamentable Tragedy of Titus Andronicus”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act I, scene i]:

     Sat. Traytor, if Rome haue law, or we haue power,
     Thou and thy Faction shall repent this Rape.
     Bass. Rape call you it my Lord, to cease my owne,
     My true betrothed Loue, and now my wife?

5. (obsolete) That which is snatched away.
   • 1636, G[eorge] S[andys], “(please specify the page)”, in A Paraphrase upon the Psalmes of David. And upon the Hymnes Dispersed throughout the Old and New Testaments, London: [Andrew Hebb […]], →OCLC ↗:

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

6. (obsolete) Movement, as in snatching; haste; hurry.

• French: viol
• German: Vergewaltigung, Schändung, Notzucht
• Italian: stupro
• Portuguese: estupro, violação
• Russian: изнаси́лование
• Spanish: violación, estupro

rape (rapes, present participle raping; simple past and past participle raped)

1. (chiefly, transitive) To force sexual intercourse or other sexual activity upon (someone) without their consent. [from 16th c.]
   • For more quotations using this term, see Citations:rape.
2. (transitive, intransitive) To seize by force. (Now often with sexual overtones.) [from late 14th c.]
   • 1978, Gore Vidal, Kalki:

     Dr Ashok's eyes had a tendency to pop whenever he wanted to rape your attention.

3. (transitive) To carry (someone, especially a woman) off against their will, especially for sex; to abduct. [from 15th c.]
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book III, Canto X”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC ↗:

     Paridell rapeth Hellenore:
     Malbecco her pursewes:
     Findes emongst Satyres, whence with him
     To turne she doth refuse.

   • 1718, Homer, translated by Alexander Pope, The Iliad:

     A Princess rap’d transcends a Navy storm'd.

4. (transitive) To plunder, to destroy or despoil. [from 17th c.]
   • 1892, Rudyard Kipling, Barrack-Room Ballads:

     I raped your richest roadstead—I plundered Singapore!

   • 2018, Power Trip, Armageddon Blues:

     We've raped the land for power and possession / Two thousand years and all we'll have is a planetary toxic deathbed

5. (men's slang, sometimes, offensive) To subject (another person) to a painful or unfair experience.
   1. To overpower, destroy (someone); to trounce. [from 20th c.]

      My experienced opponent will rape me at chess.

   2. To exploit an advantage, often involving money, where the other person has little choice but to submit.

      Have you seen the prices in that store lately? I got raped for $20 just buying a sandwich.

• (seize) theft, thievery
• (force sexual intercourse) ravish, violate, vitiate (uncommon)
• (abuse) plunder, despoil

• French: violer
• German: vergewaltigen, schänden
• Italian: stuprare, violentare, violare
• Portuguese: estuprar, violentar, violar
• Russian: наси́ловать
• Spanish: violar

• French: pirater
• German: verderben, schänden, plündern, vergewaltigen

Generally considered to derive from Old English rāp, in reference to the ropes used to delineate the courts that ruled each rape.

In the 18th century, Edward Lye proposed derivation from Old Norse hreppr, but this was rejected by the New English Dictionary and is considered "phonologically impossible" by the English Place-Name Society.

See Rape (county subdivision) for more.

rape (plural rapes)

1. (now, historical) One of the six former administrative divisions of Sussex, England. [from 11th c.]
   • 1888 March 20, Henry H. Howorth, in a letter to The Archaeological Review, volume 1 (March–August 1888), page 230:

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

rape (rapes, present participle raping; simple past and past participle raped)

1. (obsolete, intransitive or reflexive) To make haste; to hasten or hurry. [14th]

rape (plural rapes)

1. (obsolete) Haste; precipitancy; a precipitate course. [14th]

rape

1. (obsolete) Quickly; hastily. [14th]

From Latin rapa, from rāpum ("turnip").

rape (plural rape)

1. Synonym of rapeseed, Brassica napus. [late 14th c.]

From Middle English rape, from rape ("grape stalk, rasper"), from Old French raper, rasper ("to rasp, scratch"), from Old Frankish *raspon, related to Old High German raspōn, Old English ġehrespan.

rape

1. The stalks and husks of grapes from which the must has been expressed in winemaking.
2. A filter containing the stalks and husks of grapes, used for clarifying wine, vinegar, etc.
3. (obsolete) Fruit plucked in a bunch.

   a rape of grapes

   • 1682, John Ray, Methodus Plantarum Nova:

     rape of Cistus

   • 1971, Bulletin of the European Communities:

     With regard to this obligation, the Council, on 26 October 1971[,] also arranged for certain producers to be totally or partially exempted from it, either because their wine production is very low (less than 50 hectolitres in one marketing year), or because they deliver their rapes of grapes to oenological merchants, or because they make quality wines […]

1. Surname.