From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishtrancetrance /trɑːns $ træns/ noun 1 MP[countable] a state in which you behave as if you were asleep but are still able to hear and understand what is said to yougo/fall into a trance She went into a deep hypnotic trance.2 THINK ABOUT[countable] a state in which you are thinking about something so much that you do not notice what is happening around youin a trance What’s the matter with you? You’ve been in a trance all day.3 [uncountable] a type of popular electronic dance music with a fast beat and long continuous notes played on a synthesizer
Examples from the Corpus
trance• He looked stunned, almost in a trance, but he soon regained his composure.• The channeler goes into a trance and summons spirits, who either talk through the channeler or appear directly to those present.• Snapping out of his brief trance, Mungo supposed Stanley was relieved that at least the shop had survived the flood.• a hypnotic trance• Finally I shook myself out of my trance and rolled over on the cot, facing away from her.• At once the two of them fall into a kind of trance.• At least Jenny had known that she would be either drunk or in a state of trance.go/fall into a trance• She decides to weave the most beautiful blanket in the world and falls into a trance.• The channeler goes into a trance and summons spirits, who either talk through the channeler or appear directly to those present.• Towards the front, some of the men had gone into trance, waiting for the goddess to possess them.• Some of them had gone into trances, and questions were asked by many worried parents.• Sometimes he went into a trance.• When he did sleep, he simply went into a trance for five minutes.• Breathe the air and you fall into a trance.in a trance• He looked stunned, almost in a trance, but he soon regained his composure.• Nails sat all day in a trance and every teacher who took his class reported his state to his form-master.• He edged forward in a trance and, as he did so, the light in the room was switched off.• As the deep black shadow in Glen Keltney closed over them, they moved slowly nearer home in a trance of fatigue.• I went about as if in a trance, speaking to no one, not hearing when anyone spoke to me.• Their faces glaze over as if in a trance.• And we lived in a trance throughout most of the 1980s.• Gee! You were really in a trance. Didn't you hear me at all?• Her companion urged her not to interrupt him, as he was running in a trance.Origin trance (1300-1400) Old French transe, from transir “to pass away, become unconscious”, from Latin transire; → TRANSIENT1 