temptation Hear it!

temptation Definition

temp·ta·tion (temp tā′s̸hən)

noun

  1. a tempting or being tempted
  2. something that tempts; enticement

Etymology: OFr < LL(Ec) temptatio < L, an attack, trial

temptation Synonyms

temptation

n.

lure, attraction, fascination, appeal, inducement, bait, fancy, hankering, provocation, yen.

temptation Usage Examples

Converse of object

  • resist: I resisted the temptation to take a film camera backup ' just in case ' .
  • avoid: The best way to avoid these temptations to is plan your shopping during off peak hours.
  • withstand: Sometimes we lack strength to withstand temptations; the throne of grace was set up for a time of need, Heb. iv.
  • overcome: I want your Holy Spirit to help me overcome temptation.
  • reject: May God help us all to reject the temptations of Satan.
  • remove: Arrival There are several positive steps you can take at the hotel which can remove unnecessary temptation.

Adjective modifier

  • irresistible: As a symbol of irresistible temptation, the apple is deeply convincing.
  • sore: Of consequence, there are few that know how to sympathize with them that are under this sore temptation.
  • sexual: He fought boredom and guilt, sexual temptations and hunger for possessions.
  • constant: The constant temptation to cheat by using dangerous performance enhancing drugs is also a scandal.
  • subtle: Nay, we are under a more subtle temptation than any other men to draw us from this heavenly life.
  • terrible: There you have a terrible temptation to fall into social patriotism!

Modifies a noun

  • today: A real temptation today In every age, one of the great temptations for mankind is to embellish God's Word with human ideas.

Noun used with modifier

  • diver: Patience here is courageous perseverance in the face of suffering and difficulty is produced through divers temptations.

Possessives

  • Satan: Deliver us from Satan's temptation to think You have forgotten us.

Preposition: in

  • wilderness: In the Gospel, we read about Jesus' temptations in the wilderness following his baptism.

Preposition: of

  • Satan: We shall rest from all the temptations of Satan.
  • devil: May Jesus bless you and protect you from the temptations of the devil.
  • world: However, the grass appeared to be sprouting greener on the other side of the fence and the temptations of the bigger world beckoned.
temptation Quotes

What is it that constitutes virtue, Mrs Graham? Is it the circumstance of being able and willing to resist temptation; or that of having no temptation to resist?

—Bronte«  , Anne

Watch and pray, that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak.

—Bible (NewTestament)

Talk, v.t. To commit an indiscretion without temptation, from an impulse without purpose.

—Bierce, Ambrose Gwinett

It is always a temptation to a rich and lazy nation, To puff and look important and to say: 'Though we know we should defeat you, we have not the time to meet you, We will therefore pay you cash to go away.' And that is called paying the Dane-geld; But we've proved it again and again, That if once you have paid him the Dane-geld You never get rid of the Dane.

—Kipling, (Joseph) Rudyard

   The last temptation is the greatest treason: To do the right deed for the wrong reason.

—Eliot,T(homas) S(tearns)

After this manner therefore pray ye: Our Father which art in heaven, Hallowed be thy name. Thy kingdom come.Thy will be doneinearth, as it isinheaven.Giveus this day our daily bread. And forgive us our debts, as we forgive ourdebtors. And lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil: For thine is the kingdom, and the power, and the glory, for ever. Amen.

—Bible (NewTestament)

   Marriage is popular because it combines the maximum of temptation with the maximum of opportunity.

—Shaw, George Bernard

It may almost be a question whether such wisdom as many of us have in our mature years has not come from the dying out of the power of temptation, rather than as the results of thought and resolution.

—Trollope, Anthony

My son, if thou come to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation.

—Bible (Apocrypha)

There are several good protections against temptation but the surest is cowardice.

—Twain, Mark pseudonym of  Samuel Langhorne Clemens

I can resist everything except temptation.

—Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'FlahertieWills

I should be the last person to say anything against temptation, naturally, but we have a proverb down here 'in baiting a mouse-trap with cheese, always leave room for the mouse'.

—Saki pseudonym of  Hector Hugh Munro

One morning, as I was sitting by the fire, a great cloud came over me, and a temptation beset me, and I sate still† And as I sate still under it and let it alone, a living hope rose in me, and a true voice arose in me which cried:There is a living God who made all things. And immediately the cloud and temptation vanished away, and the life rose over it all, and my heart was glad, and I praised the living God.

—Fox, George

Harden not your heart, as in the provocation, and as in the day of temptation in the wilderness: When your fatherstempted me, proved me, and saw my work.Forty years long was I grieved with this generation, and said, It is a people that do err in their heart, and they have not known my ways: Unto whom I sware in my wrath that they should not enter into my rest.

—Bible (Old Testament)

Books of poetry by young writersareusually promissory notes that are never met. Now and then, however, one comes across a volume that is so far above the average that one can hardly resist the fascinating temptation of recklessly prophesying a fine future for its author. Such a book Mr Yeats's Wanderings of Oisin certainly is. Here we find nobility of treatment and nobility of subject- matter, delicacy of poetic instinct and richness of imaginative resource.

—Wilde, Oscar Fingal O'FlahertieWills

The social scientist is in a difficult, if not impossible position.On the one hand there is the temptation to see all of societyas one's autobiography writ large, surely not the path to general truth.On the other hand, there is the attempt to be general and objective by pretending that one knows nothing about the experience of being human, forcing the investigator to pretend that people usually know and tell the truth about important issues, when we all know from our own lives how impossible that is.

—Lewontin, Richard Charles

Why comes temptation but for a man to meet And master and make crouch beneath his foot, And so be pedestalled in triumph?

—Browning, Robert