The Collaborative International Dictionary
Ecstasy \Ec"sta*sy\, n.; pl. Ecstasies. [F. extase, L. ecstasis, fr. Gr. ?, fr. ? to put out of place, derange; ? = 'ek out + ? to set, stand. See Ex-, and Stand.] [Also written extasy.]
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The state of being beside one's self or rapt out of one's self; a state in which the mind is elevated above the reach of ordinary impressions, as when under the influence of overpowering emotion; an extraordinary elevation of the spirit, as when the soul, unconscious of sensible objects, is supposed to contemplate heavenly mysteries.
Like a mad prophet in an ecstasy.
--Dryden.This is the very ecstasy of love.
--Shak. -
Excessive and overmastering joy or enthusiasm; rapture; enthusiastic delight.
He on the tender grass Would sit, and hearken even to ecstasy.
--Milton. -
Violent distraction of mind; violent emotion; excessive grief of anxiety; insanity; madness. [Obs.]
That unmatched form and feature of blown youth Blasted with ecstasy.
--Shak.Our words will but increase his ecstasy.
--Marlowe. (Med.) A state which consists in total suspension of sensibility, of voluntary motion, and largely of mental power. The body is erect and inflexible; the pulsation and breathing are not affected.
--Mayne.
Wiktionary
n. (archaic spelling of ecstasy English)
Usage examples of "extasy".
I could find admission, brought on at last the critical extasy, the melting flow, into which nature, spent with excess of pleasure, dissolves and dies away.
Laurette would sometimes seat herself upon a stile or a fragment of rock, and taking her lute, which she knew how to touch with exquisite pathos, would play some charming air which she accompanied with her voice, till the soul of Enrico was lost in an extasy of delight, from which he was reluctantly awakened.
It is certain, that, in every religion, however sublime the verbal definition which it gives of its divinity, many of the votaries, perhaps the greatest number, will still seek the divine favour, not by virtue and good morals, which alone can be acceptable to a perfect being, but either by frivolous observances, by intemperate zeal, by rapturous extasies, or by the belief of mysterious and absurd opinions.
And if, as we have elsewhere declared, any have been so happy as personally to understand Christian Annihilation, Extasy, Exolution, Transformation, the Kiss of the Spouse, and Ingression into the Divine Shadow, according to Mystical Theology, they have already had an handsome Anticipation of Heaven.