Temptation

4 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Temptation \Temp*ta"tion\, n. [OF. temptation, tentation, F.
     tentation, L. tentatio.]
     1. The act of tempting, or enticing to evil; seduction.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              When the devil had ended all the temptation, he


              departed from him for a season.       --Luke iv. 13.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. The state of being tempted, or enticed to evil.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Lead us not into temptation.          --Luke xi. 4.
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     3. That which tempts; an inducement; an allurement,
        especially to something evil.
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              Dare to be great, without a guilty crown;
              View it, and lay the bright temptation down.
                                                    --Dryden.
        [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  temptation
       n 1: something that seduces or has the quality to seduce [syn: {enticement}]
       2: the desire to have or do something that you know you should
          avoid; "he felt the temptation and his will power
          weakened"
       3: the act of influencing by exciting hope or desire; "his
          enticements were shameless" [syn: {enticement}]

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  71 Moby Thesaurus words for "temptation":
     agacerie, allure, allurement, ambition, appeal, attraction,
     attractiveness, bait, beguilement, beguiling, bewitchery,
     bewitchment, blandishment, cajolery, cajoling, captivating,
     captivation, catch, charisma, charm, charmingness, coaxing,
     come-hither, come-on, dearest wish, decoy, desideration,
     desideratum, desire, draw, enchantment, enthrallment, enticement,
     enticing, entrapment, fascination, flirtation, forbidden fruit,
     glamour, glimmering goal, golden vision, hope, inducement,
     interest, inveiglement, invitation, lodestone, lure, magnet,
     magnetism, persuading, persuasion, plum, prize, pull, seducement,
     seducing, seduction, seductiveness, sex appeal, snare, snaring,
     tantalization, tempting, trap, trophy, winning ways, winsomeness,
     wish, witchery, wooing
  
  

From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:

  Temptation
     (1.) Trial; a being put to the test. Thus God "tempted [Gen. 22:
     1; R.V., 'did prove'] Abraham;" and afflictions are said to
     tempt, i.e., to try, men (James 1:2, 12; comp. Deut. 8:2),
     putting their faith and patience to the test. (2.) Ordinarily,
     however, the word means solicitation to that which is evil, and
     hence Satan is called "the tempter" (Matt. 4:3). Our Lord was in
     this way tempted in the wilderness. That temptation was not
     internal, but by a real, active, subtle being. It was not
     self-sought. It was submitted to as an act of obedience on his
     part. "Christ was led, driven. An unseen personal force bore him
     a certain violence is implied in the words" (Matt. 4:1-11).
     
       The scene of the temptation of our Lord is generally supposed
     to have been the mountain of Quarantania (q.v.), "a high and
     precipitous wall of rock, 1,200 or 1,500 feet above the plain
     west of Jordan, near Jericho."
     
       Temptation is common to all (Dan. 12:10; Zech. 13:9; Ps.
     66:10; Luke 22:31, 40; Heb. 11:17; James 1:12; 1 Pet. 1:7;
     4:12). We read of the temptation of Joseph (Gen. 39), of David
     (2 Sam. 24; 1 Chr. 21), of Hezekiah (2 Chr. 32:31), of Daniel
     (Dan. 6), etc. So long as we are in this world we are exposed to
     temptations, and need ever to be on our watch against them.