infatuate:
1. To inspire with unreasoning and extravagant, usually transitory, admiration , love or passion . ' S/He's infatuated with gambling .'SYNONYMS: allure; arouse lust ; arouse desire ; attract; attract notice; bait ; be a prickteaser; be amiable ; be lovable ; be loved; be wonderful; become a favorite; bedazzle; bewitch; bowl over; break hearts; captivate ; caress ; catch ; catch one's eye ; cause desire ; charm; coquette ; court; dazzle; draw; enamor ; enchant; endear; endear oneself; engage the affections; enrapture; enthral; excite; excite love ; fascinate; fill with longing; flirt ; gain one's affections; have a place in every heart ; heat ; inflame; ingratiate oneself; insinuate oneself; languish; lead to the altar; lead on ; lure; make a conquest; make oneself a favorite; make mad; make a hit ; make oneself attractive ; make eyes ; provoke desire ; rouse; seduce; set all hearts on fire; smile; steal every heart ; steal one's heart ; stir; strike with admiration ; subjugate; sweep-off-one's-feet ; take one's fancy ; tantalize; tempt; tickle one's fancy ; toy ; turn one's head ; vamp ; wind or worm oneself into the affections; wink . See love for more synonyms.
QUOTES:
(1) Natalie Landauer (Marisa Berenson) to Sally Bowles (Liza Minnelli) about having been 'pounced' upon by Fritz in Cabaret (1972): ' Is this love or only infatuation of the body? '
(2) Dr. Harry Wolper (Peter O'Toole) answering a student and friend in Creator (1985):-- Student: ' Harry, how did you know you were in-love , I mean with you and Lucy? How did you know it wasn't just infatuation? '-- Harry: ' Scientifically of course, by using the Love Formula. (...) Add up the number of times that you think about the lady each day, substract from that total the number of times that you think about yourself each day. If the remainder is more lady and less yourself, then it's love .' Later he revises his theorem: ' Under other, more extreme, conditions, the love formula is replaced by Eisenberg's Uncertainty Principle: we can never know anything .'
2. To cause to be foolish and, according to Webster's Revised Unabridged : ' to weaken the intellectual powers of, or to deprive of sound judgment .' See love for synonyms.
QUOTE: George Schneider (James Caan) to Jenny MacLaine (Marsha Mason) in Chapter Two (1979): 'It's infatuation that makes you stupid. It also makes you unable to walk .'
See Also: aflutter over, all aflutter over, all aquiver over, be mad about, be smitten with, be soft on, be stuck on, be sweet on, be taken with, besotted, bitten, bitten by the love bug, daft about, enamor, fall for, fall for (someone) in a big way, fall for like a ton of bricks, fall hard for, fall head-over-heels for, feel funny about, feel that funny feeling, feel that way, flip over, fond of, fool for, a, gaga, go coocoo, go cuckoo, go for in a big way, go for in a great big way, go for in large helpings, go for plenty, go for with both feet, go ga-ga, go head over heels, go in a big way for, go nuts, gone on, have a beguin for, have a crush on, have a heart-throb for, have a pash on, have a thing for, have a yearning for, have eyes for, have eyes only for, have it bad, have it hard, have one on the brain, have one's heart flip flop, have one's heart go pitapat, have one's heart go pitter-patter, have that funny feeling, have the heebie-jeebies for, have the miseries, have the tremors, heebie-jeebies, heels over head (in love), hooked, hurt for, in love with, in need of, lose one's head over, lose one's heart to, lose the old head over, love all to pieces, mad about, moon after, moon for, moon over, only have eyes for, over head and heels (in love), palpitate for, palpitate over, partial to, pashy, pine for, run a temp over, run a temperature, run a temperature over, set one's heart on, sigh after, sizzle for, smitten with, soft on, struck by lightning, stuck on, sweet on, taken with, that way about, that way over, thermometing, torching, torchy, turn (someone's) head, voomish, whales on, wild about
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