riveting
Britishadjective
Explanation
A rivet is a fastener that holds something closed or down, and something riveting keeps you glued to your seat and grabs your attention. Sometimes a movie is so riveting that not even free popcorn refills can lure you away. Riveting is an adjective for things that really draw you in, like a book you read in one sitting or a song you turn up so you can hear every lyric. Beautiful scenes are riveting, but terrible and ugly things are also riveting, like the site of an accident you can't stop looking at. Words from a teacher or actor have a riveting effect when they're full of impact and interest, and when you exaggerate a story for your best friend, that's riveting too.
Vocabulary lists containing riveting
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Another project has been Bullock’s riveting staging, with dance, of Olivier Messiaen’s mystical, Amazonian, sex-love-death song cycle, “Harawi,” which came to the Wallis in October 2024.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 19, 2026
Being the entertainment capital of the world, we won’t deny that it’s riveting to watch video after video of ICE officers slipping on, well, ice like some klutzy Keystone Kops short.
From Los Angeles Times • Jan. 15, 2026
A new generation of independent filmmakers in India is making "riveting, viable cinema" instead of "mass entertainers," Ms Choudhary points out.
From BBC • Jan. 2, 2026
If “Intentional” isn’t consistently riveting reading, it is nonetheless sensible—and well-intentioned.
From The Wall Street Journal • Jan. 1, 2026
“What we really need is something so riveting that even President Snow won’t be able to tear himself away. Got anything like that?” asks Haymitch.
From "Mockingjay" by Suzanne Collins
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.