Rapture, n.
Etymology: [L. rapere, raptum, to carry off by force. See Rapid.]
1. A seizing by violence; a hurrying along; rapidity with violence. [Obs.] That 'gainst a rock, or flat, her keel did dash With headlong rapture. Chapman.
2. The state or condition of being rapt, or carried away from one's self by agreeable excitement; violence of a pleasing passion; extreme joy or pleasure; ecstasy. Music, when thus applied, raises in the mind of the hearer great conceptions; it strengthens devotion, and advances praise into rapture. Addison. You grow correct that once with rapture writ. Pope.
3. A spasm; a fit; a syncope; delirium. [Obs.] Shak.
Syn. -- Bliss; ecstasy; transport; delight; exultation.
1 other Webster entry under this spelling
Rapture, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Raptured; p. pr. & vb. n. Rapturing.]
To transport with excitement; to enrapture. [Poetic] Thomson.
Shades of meaning
Fernald has no entry of its own for rapture; he lists it under enthusiasm, happiness.
Where he writes about it:
Delight is vivid, overflowing happiness of a somewhat transient kind; ecstasy is a state of extreme or extravagant delight so that the one affected by it seems almost beside himself with joy; rapture is closely allied to ecstasy, but is more serene, exalted, and enduring. — from happiness