What's the difference between pleasure and rapture?

Pleasure


Definition:

  • (n.) The gratification of the senses or of the mind; agreeable sensations or emotions; the excitement, relish, or happiness produced by the expectation or the enjoyment of something good, delightful, or satisfying; -- opposed to pain, sorrow, etc.
  • (n.) Amusement; sport; diversion; self-indulgence; frivolous or dissipating enjoyment; hence, sensual gratification; -- opposed to labor, service, duty, self-denial, etc.
  • (n.) What the will dictates or prefers as gratifying or satisfying; hence, will; choice; wish; purpose.
  • (n.) That which pleases; a favor; a gratification.
  • (v. t.) To give or afford pleasure to; to please; to gratify.
  • (v. i.) To take pleasure; to seek pursue pleasure; as, to go pleasuring.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The bank tellers who saw their positions filled by male superiors took special pleasure in going to the bank and keeping them busy.
  • (2) Black males with low intentions to use condoms reported significantly more negative attitudes about the use of condoms (eg, using condoms is disgusting) and reacted with more intense anger when their partners asked about previous sexual contacts, when a partner refused sex without a condom, or when they perceived condoms as interfering with foreplay and sexual pleasure.
  • (3) Walking for pleasure was generally the most common physical activity for both sexes throughout the year.
  • (4) I like to think of Shakespeare as one delicious smorgasbord that I have a lifelong pleasure in eating.
  • (5) Saudi Arabia As one might imagine, Saudi television rather wants for the bounty we enjoy here - reality shows in which footballers' mistresses administer handjobs to barnyard animals, and all those other things which make living in the godless west such a pleasure.
  • (6) The clashes between the moralistic Levin and his friend Oblonsky, sometimes affectionate, sometimes angry, and Levin's linkage of modernity to Oblonsky's attitudes – that social mores are to be worked around and subordinated to pleasure, that families are base camps for off-base nooky – undermine one possible reading of Anna Karenina , in which Anna is a martyr in the struggle for the modern sexual freedoms that we take for granted, taken down by the hypocritical conservative elite to which she, her lover and her husband belong.
  • (7) Data from human and animal studies indicate a correlation between ictal pleasure or reinforcement and the subject's ability to induce seizures.
  • (8) I have had the awe-inducing pleasure of standing alone among the giant trees, both sequoias and redwoods, and hearing nothing but the chatter of the squirrels and the high wind in the tallest branches.
  • (9) Nondrinkers reported a greater likelihood of both positive and negative effects; heavier drinkers reported more pleasurable effects.
  • (10) A survey last year found that almost 4 million British adults never read books for pleasure , and as in Pellerin’s case, a lack of time was the dominant factor.
  • (11) We like to enjoy ourselves, if you enjoy the way you play you’ll win a lot of games.” It is a long time, and several managers, since Sunderland fans have derived any sustained pleasure from observing their team in action and sure enough, watching Allardyce’s charges was once again, a somewhat gruelling experience.
  • (12) (Like humans, they have sex for pleasure as well as for procreation.)
  • (13) But a big part of the High Line's success is its planting and landscaping, which is intelligent, imaginative and well considered, in the way it converts industrial relics into a place of urban pleasure.
  • (14) There is an enjoyment that comes with owning it, a pleasure, but also he is an astute businessman.
  • (15) He confessed to over-indulgence in this pleasure at some stages of his life, and to the recreational use of drugs.
  • (16) The opposite of a guilty pleasure: a guilty torture.
  • (17) We would have been denied the pleasure of seeing the official Tongan team anorak, for a start, and it was a bit special, wasn’t it?
  • (18) "It gives them a sense of pleasure when they believe that they've destroyed me or taken me down.
  • (19) No changes in plasma beta-endorphin or ACTH concentrations were observed with pentagastrin nor after the meal, despite the combination of very high sensory pleasure with intake of a very large amount of food.
  • (20) It was the book that turned me on to the intoxicating pleasure of theatre criticism and – well-thumbed and much borrowed from – it has stayed with me ever since.

Rapture


Definition:

  • (n.) A seizing by violence; a hurrying along; rapidity with violence.
  • (n.) The state or condition of being rapt, or carried away from one's self by agreeable excitement; violence of a pleasing passion; extreme joy or pleasure; ecstasy.
  • (n.) A spasm; a fit; a syncope; delirium.
  • (v. t.) To transport with excitement; to enrapture.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Zuma, who had endured booing during Mandela's memorial service at this stadium, received a rapturous welcome as he entered to the sound of a military drumroll trailed by young, flag-waving majorettes.
  • (2) Meanwhile he is preparing a new double piano concerto by Kevin Volans with the Labèque sisters for a concert at the Edinburgh festival next week, and he tells me with a glint in his eye about ideas for the next two seasons: concert performances of Don Giovanni this October, more Brahms symphonies, and more Berlioz – an ambitious plan to realise the gigantic drama of Roméo and Juliette on a chamber-orchestral scale, following up his rapturously received performances of L'Enfance du Christ in February.
  • (3) No, what swung it for us was their debut album, An Awesome Wave, which has been rapturously received.
  • (4) Yet it can never hope to match yes campaigners’ vision, their powerful elixir of hope for a better future, which can spark feelings that are almost religious in their fervour, like the rapture of old Christian belief.
  • (5) "The destiny you seek lies in Europe," McCain told the crowd, to rapturous applause.
  • (6) Her agony and her rapture stay interior, and they flip-flop like nerves in this beautiful, grave black-and-white movie.
  • (7) Rocky: Das Musical , the stage adaptation of the much-loved Sylvester Stallone film , has opened to a rapturous critical reception in Hamburg.
  • (8) Sunderland’s right-back, Santiago Vergini, inadvertently gave Southampton the lead by lashing the ball into his own net in the 12th minute, and that signalled the start of a barmy encounter that had home fans in raptures and Sunderland in tatters.
  • (9) Obama received a rapturous welcome when he visited in 2010, though concrete results of the warmer relationship have been less obvious .
  • (10) Other artists on the list are Cindy Sherman (13), Gerhard Richter (16) and Steve McQueen (59), whose new film, 12 Years a Slave, has opened in the US to rapturous reviews and predicted Oscar success.
  • (11) These people stand at the edges of our avenues, of our streets, in deafening anonymity.” The passionate exhortation came hours after he addressed the United Nations , prayed at Ground Zero, visited a school in Harlem and cruised through Central Park, where 80,000 people greeted the 78-year-old Argentinean with rapture.
  • (12) In Palo Alto, a crowd of 4,000 responded rapturously to the senator’s speech.
  • (13) Once it was on the ground there was "immediately rapture, shouting and crying" among the 459 people on board, Waschbusch added.
  • (14) The first Latin American pontiff, who once worked with slum dwellers in his home city of Buenos Aires , Argentina, expressed solidarity with the residents of the Varginha favela in northern Rio de Janeiro, where he received a rapturous welcome.
  • (15) But it is Left Behind that continues to dominate the field, spawning spin-off products including – mind-bogglingly – a "kids' series" that has run to more volumes than the original saga, as well as books looking at the Rapture from the military point of view and even video games .
  • (16) Individual staffers have also rightfully apologized for their comments, and the DNC is taking appropriate action to ensure it never happens again.” The turning point came when Obama took to the stage, to a rapturous welcome from Democrats waving a sea of “Michelle” purple placards.
  • (17) And I was knocked sideways when you said, "Oh, shit", walked off and you walked back on again to rapturous applause and got it exactly right.
  • (18) At the appointed hour, we're informed, all true Christians will be snatched away and rapturously transported to heaven.
  • (19) Waving their hands, singing and praying together, the huge crowd joined in an often rapturous shared worship.
  • (20) With the stadium still in disbelieving raptures from the heroics of Jessica Ennis and Greg Rutherford, Farah took to the track to huge cheers knowing that at least a dozen of the 29-strong field were capable of mounting a serious challenge.