A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1990 (DOST Vol. VII).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Rapt, Rapte, n.1 [L. raptus a carrying off by force, n. of action f. rapere to seize, F. rapt (14th c. in Wartburg); cf. e.m.E. rapt (1526) ecstasy.]Chiefly or only Sc. in the senses illustrated below.
1. The illegal or forcible abduction (of a woman), sometimes for the purpose of violation. b. An instance of this = Rap n.2 b.(1) 1535 Stewart 23753.
Fornicatioun, Rapt, and incest, and defloratioun 1590 Digest Justiciary Proc. M 42.
The said Effie willinglie but rapt or revisching come to him 1657 Lamont Diary 103.
Dauid Ramsay, … by way of rapt, tooke away Barbara Skyne … out of hir mothers house … and maried hir 1678 Mackenzie Laws & C. i xvi 1 (1678) 163.
Rapt or ravishing, is that crime, which is committed in the violent carrying away a woman from one place to another, for satisfying the ravishers lust(2) 1577–8 Reg. Privy S. VII 218/1.
Rapt and revising of wemen 1591 Crim. Trials I ii 244, etc. 1611-57 Mure Dido & Æneas i 48.
Fair Helen's rapt, and Paris' prowd offence 1616 Misc. Hist. Soc. II 169.
At the tyme of his [Bothwell's] rapt of the Q. 1616 Fife Synod 85.
In respect of her rapt foirsaid 1626 Justiciary Cases I 43.
The tressonabill rapt and raveischeing of Barbara Scrymgeor, ane comfortles wedow 1666-7 Blakhall Narr. 185.
Rapte 1680 Lauder Notices Affairs I 278.
The plagium and rapt committed by them … on Mary Gray … a girle not yet 12 years oldb. c1620 Sutherland Bk. II 338.
Licherie … breedeth rapts, adulteries and other mischeifs 1652 Burnett of Leys App. 282.
Becaus famale children often miscarie after their fathers deceisse, by seduction, or by vnkyndly rapts, or by wilfull selfe choises 1665 Argyll-Lauderdale Lett. 29.
Ther is one … who hath committed a vile rapt upon Ednamples sister 1678 Mackenzie Laws & C. i xvi 3 (1678) 165.
If she be very old, or if the away-taker had a quarrel against her, it is not a rapt
2. The violent seizure (of goods or possessions).1584 Gray Lett. & P. 19.
The greate spoyles by sea, and rapt of goodis 1612 Acts IV 471/1.
Robberie, thift or rapt 1641 Ib. V App. 677/1.
[He] brought away from thame ane kow … quhilk is manifest rapt and oppressioune
3. The force or power of a. a current, a river in spate, b. a passion; will.a. 1645 Lithgow Siege of Newcastle 24.
The violent rapt of Tynes debording streame —b. 1632 Lithgow Trav. viii 341.
Neither may reason find place in the violent rapt of such passions 1645 Rutherford Tryal Faith iv 149.
Nor are we to think that God doth all with an immediate rapt
