acquaintance rape

noun

: rape committed by someone known to the victim

Examples of acquaintance rape in a Sentence

Recent Examples on the Web

Police continue to investigate two other recent acquaintance rape reports, one said to have taken place Feb. 1 at Yocum Hall and another Jan. 16 at Pomfret Hall. —The Arkansas Democrat-Gazette, arkansasonline.com, 25 Feb. 2025

Reporting acquaintance rape—rape committed by someone like a colleague, intimate partner, or friend—can be particularly difficult because victims are often reluctant to label their experience as rape. —Hahna Yoon, SELF, 31 Aug. 2020

Most rapes are acquaintance rapes, and most of these do not have the hallmarks of what many, even in 2019, consider rape rape — abduction or roofies or knives at the throat. —Steph Cha, USA TODAY, 28 Aug. 2019

Years of research on acquaintance rape have, furthermore, debunked the misperception that most assailants are strangers with knives in dark alleys or home invaders who climb into bedrooms through open windows. —Time, 3 Sep. 2019

In the 2014 comic, Trigger Warning: Breakfast, an anonymous woman writes about an acquaintance rape. —Marissa Korbel, Harper's BAZAAR, 25 Apr. 2018

Cosby's defense team argued that O'Neill should have recused himself from the retrial because his wife is a clinical social worker whose dissertation focused on acquaintance rape. —Eric Levenson, CNN, 8 Apr. 2018

Word History

First Known Use

1974, in the meaning defined above

Rhymes for acquaintance rape

• agape
• escape
• landscape
• lenape
• reshape
• seascape
• soundscape
• ape
• cape
• crape
• crepe
• drape

Medical Definition

acquaintance rape

noun

ac·​quain·​tance rape ə-ˈkwānt-ᵊn(t)s- 

: rape committed by someone known to the victim

Legal Definition

acquaintance rape

noun

: rape committed by someone known to the victim