to attract and hold attentively by a unique power, personal charm, unusual nature, or some other special quality; enthrall: a vivacity that fascinated the audience.
2.
to arouse the interest or curiosity of; allure.
3.
to transfix or deprive of the power of resistance, as through terror: The sight of the snake fascinated the rabbit.
a screen or mat covered with a dark material for shielding a camera lens from excess light or glare.
a children's mummer's parade, as on the Fourth of July, with prizes for the best costumes.
a calculus or concretion found in the stomach or intestines of certain animals, esp. ruminants, formerly reputed to be an effective remedy for poison.
a printed punctuation mark (‽), available only in some typefaces, designed to combine the question mark (?) and the exclamation point (!), indicating a mixture of query and interjection, as after a rhetorical question.
an extraordinary or unusual thing, person, or event; an exceptional example or instance.
to attract and delight by arousing interest or curiosity: his stories fascinated me for hours
2.
to render motionless, as with a fixed stare or by arousing terror or awe
3.
archaic to put under a spell
[C16: from Latin fascināre, from fascinum a bewitching]
usage A person can be fascinated by or with another person or thing. It is correct to speak of someone's fascination with a person or thing; one can also say a person or thing has a fascination for someone
1590s, "bewitch, enchant," from M.Fr. fasciner, from L. fascinatus, pp. of fascinare "bewitch, enchant," from fascinus "spell, witchcraft," of uncertain origin. Possibly from Gk. baskanos "bewitcher, sorcerer," with form influenced by L. fari "speak" (see fame). The Gk. word
may be from a Thracian equivalent of Gk. phaskein "to say;" cf. also enchant, and Ger. besprechen "to charm," from sprechen "to speak." Earliest used of witches and of serpents, who were said to be able to cast a spell by a look that rendered one unable to move or resist. Sense of "delight, attract" is first recorded 1815. Related: Fascinated; fascinating.