WITCH • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Witch

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/wɪtʃ/ Listen

noun

Witch n. A cone of paper which is placed in a vessel of lard or other fat, and used as a taper. (Prov. Eng.)

Witch n.

1.

One who practices the black art, or magic; one regarded as possessing supernatural or magical power by compact with an evil spirit, esp. with the Devil; a sorcerer or sorceress; now applied chiefly or only to women, but formerly used of men as well. "There was a man in that city whose name was Simon, a witch." "He can not abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch."

2.

An ugly old woman; a hag.

3.

One who exercises more than common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person; also, one given to mischief; said especially of a woman or child. (Colloq.)

4.

(Geom.) A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.

5.

(Zool.) The stormy petrel.

6.

A Wiccan; an adherent or practitioner of Wicca, a religion which in different forms may be paganistic and nature-oriented, or ditheistic. The term witch applies to both male and female adherents in this sense.

Witch balls, a name applied to the interwoven rolling masses of the stems of herbs, which are driven by the winds over the steppes of Tartary. Cf. Tumbleweed.

Witches' besoms (Bot.), tufted and distorted branches of the silver fir, caused by the attack of some fungus.

Witches' butter (Bot.), a name of several gelatinous cryptogamous plants, as Nostoc commune, and Exidia glandulosa. See Nostoc.

Witch grass (Bot.), a kind of grass (Panicum capillare) with minute spikelets on long, slender pedicels forming a light, open panicle.

Witch meal (Bot.), vegetable sulphur. See under Vegetable.

verb

witch v. t. (past & past part. witched; pres. part. witching) To bewitch; to fascinate; to enchant. "(I 'll) witch sweet ladies with my words and looks." "Whether within us or without The spell of this illusion be That witches us to hear and see."

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Etymology of 'Witch'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Witch" Quotes from Famous Books

... own land! This place must be bewitched, I think. There is a witch upon the moors, I know, who can take almost any shape; but—but they say she is three hundred years of ...

— Mary Anerley • R. D. Blackmore

... whispering of the strange things that had been found in old Mrs. Gibbon's cottage, obscene figures, and unknown contrivances. She was a witch, he said, and ...

— The Hill of Dreams • Arthur Machen

... firelight. The effect was picturesque indeed. The furniture and the polished wainscoting glinted and shone, and the shadows of the big brass andirons were thrown upon the ceiling, where they performed a witch's dance, the intricacy of ...

— Free Joe and Other Georgian Sketches • Joel Chandler Harris

... gradual beauty and significance Emerge! And did you hear That little twitter-and-cheep, Breaking inordinately loud and clear On this still, spectral, exquisite atmosphere? 'Tis a first nest at matins! And behold A rakehell cat—how furtive and acold! A spent witch homing from some infamous dance - Obscene, quick-trotting, see her tip and fade Through shadowy railings into a pit of shade! And now! a little wind and shy, The smell of ships (that earnest of romance), A sense of space and water, and thereby A lamplit bridge ...

— Poems by William Ernest Henley • William Ernest Henley

... them—crystal gazers, mediums, fortune tellers, and the rest. They are reaping a rare harvest for the moment. We punish the humbler rogues, but we don't punish the fools who go to see them. If I had my way, the man or woman who visited the modern witch or wizard should get six months in the second division. Fools should be punished oftener for their folly. But education will sweep these things into the limbo of man's ignorance and mental infancy. Ghosts cannot stand ...

— The Grey Room • Eden Phillpotts

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