enthrall

enthrallverb/ɪnˈθɹɔːl/

• 1

  literaryTo enslave; to subjugate.

• 2

  To hold spellbound.

  • Fancy, Jim, to be in love and play Juliet! To have him sitting there! To play for his delight! I am afraid I may frighten the company, frighten or enthrall them.
  • In the center of the circle of glittering black bodies he leaped and roared and shook his heavy spear in the same mad abandon that enthralled his fellow savages. The last remnant of his civilization was forgotten—he was a primitive man to the fullest now; reveling in the freedom of the fierce, wild life he loved, gloating in his kingship among these wild blacks.
• 3

  archaicTo make subservient.

  • […] Who oft as undeservedly enthrall / His outward freedom: Tyranny must be;