WITCH • DICTIONARY ONE.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

... could not sleep. The wind poured in my ear Immortal names—Lear, Hamlet, Hal, Macbeth, And thro the night I heard the rushing breath Of ghost and witch and fool go whirling by. I followed them, under the phantom sphere Of the pale moon, along the Avon's near And nimbused flowing, followed to his bier— Who had evoked them first with mighty eye. And as I gazed upon the peaceful spire That points above earth's ...

— Nirvana Days • Cale Young Rice

... they now no longer fear the king, Since that the maid turned out to be a witch At Rheims, the devil aideth us no longer, And things ...

— The Works of Frederich Schiller in English • Frederich Schiller

... appear and disappear at will. For the rest they have the mental and physical characteristics of the kings and queens they protect or persecute so capriciously. They can be seen by making a magic sign and looking through a witch's arm held akimbo. They are no good comates for men or women, and to meddle with a goddess or nymph or giantess was to ensure evil or death for a man. The god's loves were apparently not always so fatal, though there seems to be some tradition to that ...

— The Danish History, Books I-IX • Saxo Grammaticus ("Saxo the Learned")

... witch!" shouted Jack. "She rode in on a broomstick—she crept in through the keyhole. Where's the fire? Let's take her downstairs, ...

— Jezebel • Wilkie Collins

... there is a plain, and on the plain is a knoll, about twice the height of a one-storeyed cottage, and pointed "like a sugar-loaf." The old people remember, or have heard, that this mound was not there when they were young. It swelled up suddenly out of the grave of a witch who was buried there. ...

— Angling Sketches • Andrew Lang

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