If someone or something is ravishing, they are so beautiful they almost stop you. It is stronger and more old-fashioned than pretty, and a little grander than beautiful: a ravishing dress, a ravishing smile, she looked ravishing. You meet it in romance, in older books, and when someone is being theatrical. Young people do not throw it around on the street. Though actually, the older verb ravish is a dark word — to seize someone by force — and ravishing grew from the idea of beauty that carries you away. Today the adjective is about looks, not violence, but it still has that ‘takes your breath’ feeling, which is why it can sound like a film line.