Both Uses of
mesmerize
in
A Prayer for Owen Meany
- Lydia, rocking in her wheelchair, appeared to be mesmerized by the one-sided phone conversation; Ethel held the candlestick like a weapon.†
p. 201.0 *mesmerized = spellbound or enthralled
- What we witnessed with the death of Kennedy was the triumph of television; what we saw with his assassination, and with his funeral, was the beginning of television's dominance of our culture—for television is at its most solemnly self-serving and at its mesmerizing best when it is depicting the untimely deaths of the chosen and the golden.†
p. 448.8mesmerizing = spellbinding or enthralling
Definition:
to spellbind or enthrall (completely hold someone's entire attention)
or more rarely: to hypnotize or be in a trance
or more rarely: to hypnotize or be in a trance