Witch - Dictionary Definition and Overview

Witch :  (noun)
1: a female sorcerer or magician [syn: enchantress]
2: a being (usually female) imagined to have special powers derived from the devil
3: an ugly evil-looking old woman [syn: hag, beldam, beldame, crone] (verb)

1: cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something [syn: hex, bewitch, glamour, enchant, jinx]

Based on WordNet 2.0

Witch : \Witch\, n. [Cf. Wick of a lamp.] A cone of paper which is placed in a vessel of lard or other fat, and used as a taper. [Prov. Eng.]

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Witch : \Witch\, n. [OE. wicche, AS. wicce, fem., wicca, masc.; perhaps the same word as AS. w[=i]tiga, w[=i]tga, a soothsayer (cf. Wiseacre); cf. Fries. wikke, a witch, LG. wikken to predict, Icel. vitki a wizard, vitka to bewitch.] 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. --Wyclif (Acts viii. 9).

He can not abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch. --Shak.

2. An ugly old woman; a hag. --Shak.

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. (Zo["o]l.) The stormy petrel.

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. --Maunder (Treas. of Bot.)

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

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">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.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Witch : \Witch\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Witched; p. pr. & vb. n. Witching.] [AS. wiccian.] To bewitch; to fascinate; to enchant.

[I 'll] witch sweet ladies with my words and looks. --Shak.

Whether within us or without The spell of this illusion be That witches us to hear and see. --Lowell.

Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary

Witch :  Occurs only in Ex. 22:18, as the rendering of _mekhashshepheh_, the feminine form of the word, meaning "enchantress" (R.V., "sorceress"), and in Deut. 18:10, as the rendering of _mekhashshepheth_, the masculine form of the word, meaning "enchanter."



Based on Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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