Witch : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: Witch	by the DICT Development Group
5 results for Witch
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
witch n a female sorcerer or magician Synonym(s): enchantress, witch a being (usually female) imagined to have special powers derived from the devil a believer in Wicca Synonym(s): Wiccan, witch an ugly evil-looking old woman Synonym(s): hag, beldam, beldame, witch, crone v cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something Synonym(s): hex, bewitch, glamour, witch, enchant, jinx
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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.]
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Witch \Witch\, n. [OE. wicche, AS. wicce, fem., wicca, masc.; perhaps the same word as AS. w[c6]tiga, w[c6]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[94]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}) with minute spikelets on long, slender pedicels forming a light, open panicle. {Witch meal} (Bot.), vegetable sulphur. See under {Vegetable}.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
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.
From Easton's 1897 Bible Dictionary [easton]:
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."