Witch
Witch , noun
[Compare Wick of a lamp.]
A cone of paper which is placed in a vessel of lard or other fat, and used as a taper. [Provincial English]
Witch , noun
[Old English wicche, Anglo-Saxon wicce, fem., wicca, masc.; perhaps the same word as Anglo-Saxon wītiga, wītga, a soothsayer (compare Wiseacre); compare Fries. wikke, a witch, LG. wikken to predict, Icelandic 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.
He can not abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch.
2.
An ugly old woman; a hag. — Shakespeare
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. [Colloquial]
4.
(Geometry) A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.
5.
(Zoology) 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.
Collocations (5)
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. Compare Tumbleweed. — Maunder (Treas. of Bot.)
Witches' besoms (Botany) , tufted and distorted branches of the silver fir, caused by the attack of some fungus. — Maunder (Treas. of Bot.)
Witches' butter (Botany) , a name of several gelatinous cryptogamous plants, as Nostoc commune, and Exidia glandulosa. See Nostoc.
Witch grass (Botany) , a kind of grass (Panicum capillare) with minute spikelets on long, slender pedicels forming a light, open panicle.
witch , transitive verb
[Anglo-Saxon wiccian.]
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.