Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- v. To lead away from duty, accepted principles, or proper conduct. See Synonyms at lure.
- v. To induce to engage in sex.
- v. To entice or beguile into a desired state or position.
- v. To win over; attract.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- To lead aside or astray; entice away from duty, legal obligation, or rectitude, as by promises, bribes, etc.; corrupt; specifically, to entice (a woman) to a surrender of chastity. See seduction, 2.
- Synonyms Lure, Decoy, etc. See allure, and list under entice.
Wiktionary
- v. To beguile or lure someone away from duty, accepted principles, or proper conduct. To lead astray.
- v. To entice or induce someone to engage in a sexual relationship
- v. To win over or attract someone
GNU Webster's 1913
- v. To draw aside from the path of rectitude and duty in any manner; to entice to evil; to lead astray; to tempt and lead to iniquity; to corrupt.
- v. Specifically, to induce to engage in sexual intercourse.
WordNet 3.0
- v. induce to have sex
- v. lure or entice away from duty, principles, or proper conduct
Etymologies
- Borrowed from Latin seducere ("to lead apart or astray"), from se- ("aside, away, astray") + ducere ("to lead"); see duct. Compare adduce, conduce, deduce, etc. (Wiktionary)
- Middle English seduisen, from Old French seduire, seduis-, alteration (influenced by Medieval Latin sēdūcere, to lead astray) of suduire, to seduce, from Latin subdūcere, to withdraw : sub-, sub- + dūcere, to lead. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“I especially enjoyed juxtaposing the scientific and the erotic, as when Jennet and Ben Franklin seduce each other while performing an experiment with a rotating sulphur ball.”
“Averages again seduce us away from minute observation.”
“His own mouth condemns him," exclaimed the impostor; "he confesses that his intention was to seduce from the way of salvation our well-beloved sister in God; away with him to the dungeon; to-morrow he dies the death; we are manifestly called upon to make an example, tremendous and appalling, to scare the children of sin from our asylum of the saved.”
“Or an ungodly witness is one that profanely and atheistically witnesses against religion and godliness, whose instructions seduce from the words of knowledge (v. 27); such a one scorns judgment, laughs at the terrors of the Lord, mocks at that fear, Job xv.”
Commentary on the Whole Bible Volume III (Job to Song of Solomon)
“Sadly, SoWhat and The Round can't even master the "seduce" part of the equation.”
“Kill discreetly two minotaurs since their body parts are highly sought commodities - it is a sacrilege to even provoke the powerful and long lived beings as they have a storied past helping Caeli Amur against enemies - so, using the oldest trick in the book, Kata goes bar-hopping to "seduce" her victims.”
"PS Showcase 8 - The Library of Forgotten Books" by Rjurik Davidson (Reviewed by Liviu Suciu)
“The inference I took is that they got called on exploiting Chelsea in an act of desperation to try to "seduce" superdelegates and celebs.”
“They got caught explaoiting her to "seduce" superdelegates and celebs, so they lashed back at the messenger under the guise of misogyny.”
“Is it possible that girls could have a desire, in their heart of hearts, to 'seduce' the father, emotionally at least, because this would mean having more power in the family ...?”
Peggy Drexler: The New Father/ Daughter Dance: Changing Lessons in Power
“Endemically corrupt, it can only survive if it can "seduce" the opposition.”
John Conyers; Don't Be Brave. Be Smart- Smart Enough to Use the Claw of the Impeachment Hammer.
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘seduce’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Unknown
coalition, cabinet, tweet, defuse, steep, ancestral, mindset, breach, infraction, egregious, curb, backbite and 282 more...
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UK Usage - Find US Equivalent
All these terms have a (different) American English equivalent. Wonder if you can identify them?
abridgement (abri..., accoutrement, accoutre, acknowledgement (..., opposite, advert, adaptor, adapter, sticking plaster, advertise, adviser (advisor ..., adze, aesthete and 1196 more...
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Words in which "u" is pronounced "yu"
cute, uniform, puny, municipal, butte, fume, perfume, puke, cucumber, huge, demure, cube and 95 more...
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LIT - Odyssey - key words and phrases
Key words of the Odyssey by Homer in English including all those famous repeating epitethons like
"bright-eyed Athene"
"wine-dark sea"
"rosy-fingered dawn"
"long suf...Odysseus, sea, Athene, goddess, land, Achaean, wind, wave, Ithaca, lead, Poseidon, mortal and 732 more...
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LIT - Iliad - key words and protagonists
abduct, abducting, abductor, Achaea, Achaean, Achilles, advise, Aegean, Aegean Sea, Aegina, aegis, Aeneas and 713 more...
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Come right this way!
Words that draw us toward an object or destination.
lure, tempt, suck in, summon, seduce, pull, persuade, inveigle, fascinate, entrap, enchant, draw and 12 more...
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Words of seduction
nibble, caress, writhing, whisper, penetrate, lick, flushed, passionate, embrace, nudity, intimacy, tempt and 17 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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Let's talk about sex
A collection of words about doing the nasty.
prurient, odalisque, soubrette, gravid, lochia, xenogamy, syngamy, zygote, pintle, hexaploid, seminal, hetaera and 232 more...
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litigious semantics
ad unguem, abeyance, choleric, contentious, curmudgeonly, churlish, dictatorial, vindictive, dogmatic, truculent, mutinous, refractory and 254 more...
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favorite words
ennui, bonhomie, eschew, liaison, serendipity, lovely, dusk, kitten, epitome, sexy, beloved, darling and 396 more...
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ash
ash
abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abide, abject, abjure and 4874 more...
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the hotlist
short, sweet, epic, catchy, sassy, sexy & sizzling.
( personal list, randomness )
more:
http://www.wordnik.com/lists/...zing, epic, win, fail, hot, warp, times, clip, onyx, wonky, pwn, leet and 1493 more...
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OrbitalCombustion's Words
nepenthe, phrontistery, peregrination, pervicacious, sinistrality, phallogocentric, prolixity, leptokurtic, ineffable, haecceity, lucubration, vicissitudes and 1026 more...
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Words I like
I like these words because I think they flow and sound okay
love, writhe, pulse, live, thank you, breathe, liquify, vanish, stopper, macadamia, jaundiced, Leviathan and 61 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for seduce.
Vallin SFAS re: the pretty girls in the illustrations below I'M IN! Jul 9, 2011