witch

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

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.  [1913 Webster]

witch, n. [OE. wicche, AS. wicce, fem., wicca, masc.; perhaps the same word as AS. wītiga, wītga, a soothsayer (cf. Wiseacre); cf. Fries. wikke, a witch, LG. wikken to predict, Icel. vitki a wizard, vitka to bewitch.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "There was a man in that city whose name was Simon, a witch."  [1913 Webster]

  "He can not abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch."  [1913 Webster]
•  An ugly old woman; a hag.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.  [1913 Webster]
•  The stormy petrel.  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [PJC]

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) with minute spikelets on long, slender pedicels forming a light, open panicle. -- Witch meal (Bot.), vegetable sulphur. See under Vegetable.

witch, v. t. [AS. wiccian.].

 To bewitch; to fascinate; to enchant.  [1913 Webster]
"[I 'll] witch sweet ladies with my words and looks."  [1913 Webster]
"Whether within us or without
The spell of this illusion be
That witches us to hear and see."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

witch, n. & v.
--n.
1 a sorceress, esp. a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits.
2 an ugly old woman; a hag.
3 a fascinating girl or woman.
4 a flat-fish, Pleuronectes cynoglossus, resembling the lemon sole.
--v.tr. archaic 1 bewitch.
2 fascinate, charm, lure.

Idiom

witch-doctor a tribal magician of primitive people. witches' sabbath see SABBATH 3. witch-hunt
1 hist. a search for and persecution of supposed witches.
2 a campaign directed against a particular group of those holding unpopular or unorthodox views, esp. communists. the witching hour midnight, when witches are supposedly active (after Shakesp. Hamlet III. ii. 377 the witching time of night).

Derivative

witching adj. witchlike adj.

Etymology

OE wicca (masc.), wicce (fem.), rel. to wiccian (v.) practise magic arts

DEVIL DICTIONARY

witch

n. (1) Any ugly and repulsive old woman, in a wicked league with the devil. (2) A beautiful and attractive young woman, in wickedness a league beyond the devil.

THESAURUS

witch

Jezebel, Mafioso, Weird Sisters, Young Turk, baboon, bag, bat, battle-ax, beast, becharm, bedevil, beguile, beldam, berserk, berserker, bewitch, biddy, bitch, bitch-kitty, blemish, blot, bomber, brute, captivate, carry away, cast a spell, cat, charm, common scold, coven, crone, dame, demon, demonize, devil, diabolize, dog, dowager, drab, dragon, enchant, enchantress, enrapture, enravish, enthrall, entrance, eyesore, fascinate, fiend, fire-eater, firebrand, fishwife, fright, frump, fury, gargoyle, goon, gorilla, grandam, grandmother, granny, grimalkin, gunsel, hag, hardnose, harridan, hell-raiser, hellcat, hellhag, hellhound, hellion, hex, holy terror, hood, hoodlum, hoodoo, hothead, hotspur, hypnotize, incendiary, infatuate, intrigue, jinx, killer, lamia, mad dog, madcap, mesmerize, mess, monster, monstrosity, mugger, no beauty, obsess, old battle-ax, old dame, old girl, old granny, old lady, old trot, old wife, old woman, overlook, possess, rapist, revolutionary, savage, scarecrow, scold, shamaness, she-devil, she-wolf, shrew, sight, siren, sorceress, spell, spellbind, spitfire, teratism, termagant, terror, terrorist, tiger, tigress, tough, tough guy, transport, trot, ugly customer, ugly duckling, vamp, violent, virago, vixen, voodoo, war-horse, wild beast, wildcat, witchwife, witchwoman, wolf

ROGET THESAURUS

witch

Ugliness

N ugliness, deformity, inelegance, acomia, disfigurement, want of symmetry, inconcinnity, distortion, squalor, forbidding countenance, vinegar aspect, hanging look, wry face, spretae injuria formae, eyesore, object, witch, hag, figure, sight, fright, monster, dog, woofer, pig, octopus, specter, scarecrow, harridan, satyr, toad, monkey, baboon, Caliban, Aesop, monstrum horrendum informe ingens cui lumen adempt, ugly, ugly as sin, ugly as a toad, ugly as a scarecrow, ugly as a dead monkey, plain, bald (unadorned), homely, ordinary, unornamental, inartistic, unsightly, unseemly, uncomely, unlovely, unshapely, sightless, seemless, not fit to be seen, unbeauteous, unbeautiful, beautiless, semibeautiful, shapeless, misshapen, misproportioned, monstrous, gaunt, dumpy, curtailed of its fair proportions, ill-made, ill- shaped, ill-proportioned, crooked, hard featured, hard visaged, ill-favored, hard-favored, evil-favored, ill-looking, unprepossessing, unattractive, uninviting, unpleasing, graceless, inelegant, ungraceful, ungainly, uncouth, stiff, rugged, rough, gross, rude, awkward, clumsy, slouching, rickety, gawky, lumping, lumpish, lumbering, hulky, hulking, unwieldy, squalid, haggard, grim, grim faced, grim visaged, grisly, ghastly, ghost like, death like, cadaverous, grewsome, gruesome, frightful, hideous, odious, uncanny, forbidding, repellant, repulsive, repugnant, grotesque, bizarre, grody, grody to the max, horrid, horrible, shocking, foul, dingy, gaudy, disfigured, discolored.

Sorcerer

N sorcerer, magician, thaumaturgist, theurgist, conjuror, necromancer, seer, wizard, witch, hoodoo, voodoo, fairy, lamia, hag, warlock, charmer, exorcist, mage, cunning man, medicine man, Shaman, figure flinger, ecstatica, medium, clairvoyant, fortune teller, mesmerist, deus ex machina, soothsayer, Katerfelto, Cagliostro, Mesmer, Rosicrucian, Circe, siren, weird sisters.

Oracle

N oracle, prophet, prophesier, seer, soothsayer, augur, fortune teller, crystal gazer, witch, geomancer, aruspex, aruspice, haruspice, haruspex, astrologer, star gazer, Sibyl, Python, Pythoness, Pythia, Pythian oracle, Delphian oracle, Monitor, Sphinx, Tiresias, Cassandra, Sibylline leaves, Zadkiel, Old Moore, sorcerer, interpreter, predictor, prognosticator, forecaster, weather forecaster, weatherman, a prophet is without honor in his own country, you don't need a weatherman to know which way the.