| 释义 |
▪ I. witch, n.1 Now only dial.|wɪtʃ|
Forms: 1 wicca, wycca, 3–6 wiche, etc. (as next).
[OE. wicca wk. masc. (see next).]
A man who practises witchcraft or magic; a magician, sorcerer, wizard. See also white witch.
c890Laws of ælfred xxx, Ða fæmnan, þe ᵹewuniað onfon ᵹealdorcræftiᵹan, & scinlæcan, & wiccan. c1100Gloss. in Wr.-Wülcker 183/31 Augur uel ariolus, wicca. a1225Juliana 41 Ich hit am þat spec þurh simunes muð þe wicche. c1250Gen. & Ex. 3028 Ðe wicches hidden hem for-ðan, Bi-foren pharaun nolden he ben. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints xxi. (Clement) 532 Sayand he was ane enchantore, A wech and a trigetouyre. 1377Langl. P. Pl. B. xviii. 46 ‘Crucifige’, quod a cacchepolle ‘I warante hym a wicche!’ c1400Three Kings Cologne 84 Þe paynyms..cleped þes iij kyngis Magos, þat is to seye wicchis. 1470–85Malory Arthur i. viii. 45 Som of hem lough hym [sc. Merlin] to scorne,..and mo other called hym a wytche. c1533More Answ. Poys. Bk. Wks. 1063/2 The turning of Aarons rod..into suche a serpent as deuoured vp all y⊇ serpentes of y⊇ Egipciane witches. 1563Winȝet Vincent. Lirin. xxx. Wks. (S.T.S.) II. 63/7 Simon the weche, quha wes strukin be the Apostolis cursing. 1627R. Bernard Guide Grand-Jury Men 240 The examination of that grand Witch, Lewis Gaufredy, before noble Commissioners. 1668Rolle Abridgment i. 44 Home dit que I. S. Is a Witch, and I will prove him so. 1712Swift Jrnl. to Stella 17 June, Am I a Laplander? am I witch?..can I make easterly winds? 1828Carr Craven Gloss., Witch, this word..is frequently used for wizard, or fortune teller. 1913in Expositor (1914) Jan. 20 [Near Criccieth] there lives a long-haired, haggard old man whom the people about speak of as a ‘witch’.
b. fig.
1832Carlyle Misc., Boswell's Johnson (1857) III. 51 The Editor is clearly no witch at a riddle. 1840Haliburton Clockm. Ser. iii. viii, And she keeps a-sayin'—Well, he's a witch! Well, how strange!
▪ II. witch, n.2|wɪtʃ|
Forms: 1–2 wicce, wycce, 2–6 wicche, 3 wichche, 3–4 wychche, 3–5 wycche, 3–6 wiche, 4–5 wyche, wech, 4–6 wich, wytche, wych, 4–7 witche, 5–6 weche, (4 wecch, Sc. wesch-, wisch-, 4, 6 which(e, 5 whitche, wheche, 6 wytch, Sc. vytche, vyche, weyche), 6– witch.
[OE. wicce fem., corresponding to wicca witch n.1, both of which are app. derivatives of wiccian witch v.1]
1. a. A female magician, sorceress; in later use esp. a woman supposed to have dealings with the devil or evil spirits and to be able by their co-operation to perform supernatural acts. See also white witch.
c1000ælfric Saints' Lives vii. 209 Animað..þa reðan wiccan, Seo þe ðus awent þurh wiccecræft manna mod. a1100Aldhelm Gloss. i. 1926 (Napier 52/1) P(h)itonissam, .i. diuinatricem, helhrunan, wiccan. c1290St. Kath. 279 in S. Eng. Leg. 100 Faste ȝe schulle þe wychche binde,..And smitez of hire heued a-non. 1303R. Brunne Handl. Synne 499 Lo here a tale of a wycche, Þat leued no better þan a bycche. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints l. (Katerine) 1088 [He] gert þis katrine till hyme feite, & sad hir: ‘þu wikide wiche, Quhat wenis þu ws lang to preche?’ c1400Destr. Troy 11182 The worthy, þat wicche hase wastid to dethe. 1440Wyrcester in Wars Eng. in Fr. (Rolls) II. ii. 763 Alia mulier magica, vocata vulgariter Wyche of Eye,..capta est.., et apud Smythfeld cremata. 1471Caxton Recuyell (Sommer) 243 Iuno the false wycche and sorceresse. 1500–20Dunbar Poems xxxv. 35 Jonet the weido on ane bussome rydand, Off wichiss with ane windir garesoun. 1591Shakes. 1 Hen. VI, v. iii. 34 See how the vgly Witch doth bend her browes, As if with Circe, she would change my shape. 1656W. Coles Art of Simpling 67 Leaves of Elder..which to disappoint the Charmes of Witches, they had affixed to their Doores and Windowes. 1711Addison Spect. No. 117 ⁋10 When an old Woman begins to doat, and grow chargeable to a Parish, she is generally turned into a Witch. 1790Burns Tam o' Shanter 200 The witches follow, Wi' mony an eldritch skriech and hollo. 1868Tennyson Lucretius 15 She..Dreaming some rival, sought and found a witch Who brew'd the philtre. 1901Rhys Celtic Folklore iv. 294, I have heard of one old witch changing herself into a pigeon.
b. With masculine prefix.
1601Strange Rep. Sixe Notorious Witches B ij, Men-Witches. 1653Gataker Vind. Annot. Jer. 108 No pure Astrologer, but a meer Magitian in plain English, an He⁓witch.
c. a witch of Endor (in allusion to 1 Sam. xxviii. 7): a fanciful term for (a) a bewitching person; (b) a medium.
1819C'tess Spencer Let. 15 Nov. in Sarah, Lady Lyttleton's Corr. (1912) viii. 217 That witch of Endor, the Duchess of Devon, has been doing mischief of another kind. 1919R. R. Marett in Q. Rev. Apr. 458 In the West End a séance with a Witch of Endor is doubtless to be obtained for a suitable fee.
d. Phrases. the witch is in it: it is bewitched. as nervous as a witch: a New England phrase, applied to a very restless person.
a1654Selden Table-talk (Arb.) 82 When a Country-wench cannot get her Butter to come, she says, The Witch is in her Churn. 1885Howells Silas Lapham xvii. 325 She rose from her struggle with the problem, and said aloud to herself, ‘Well, the witch is in it’. 1911F. M. Crawford Uncanny Tales, Man Overboard (1917) 132 She's been as nervous as a witch all day. 1918E. H. Porter Oh, Money! Money! xvii, He's nervous as a witch. He can't keep still a minute.
†2. transf. The nightmare. Obs.
c1440Promp. Parv. 526/2 Wytche, clepyd nyghte mare.., epialtes. 1585Higins Junius' Nomencl. 427/1 Incubus, ephialtes,..a kinde of disease called the night mare or witch. [Cf. 1847 Halliwell, Riding of the Witch, a popular phrase for the nightmare, still in use.]
3. fig.
a. gen.
1659W. Brough Sacr. Princ. 240 Save me from vain pleasures, the great witches of the world. 1708Brit. Apollo I. Quarterly Paper No. 2. 8/1 The Four of Clubs [is] call'd Wibling's Witch..from one James Wibling, who in the Reign of..James the First, grew Rich by..Gaming, and was commonly observ'd to have the Card..in his Hand. 1820Shelley Gisborne 132 The quaint witch Memory sees, In vacant chairs, your absent images.
b. (a) A young woman or girl of bewitching aspect or manners.
1740Richardson Pamela (1824) I. xxiv. 37 Mrs. Jervis, said he, take the little witch from me. 1800T. D. Whitaker Whalley i. 184 note, In..1634 was acted..a play entitled The Witches of Lancaster... The term has since been transferred to a gentler species of fascination, which my fair countrywomen still continue to exert in full force. 1834Lytton Pompeii i. ii, For my part I find every woman a witch. 1845A. M. Hall Whiteboy ix. 69, I own I have abused Miss Ellen, and good right I had—a young witch, driving the world through heaven's windows. 1888‘J. S Winter’ Bootles' Childr. vii, She who had been the blithest little witch he had ever known.
(b) old witch: a contemptuous appellation for a malevolent or repulsive-looking old woman.
c1430Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 168 A lusti galaunt that weddithe an olde wiche. a1536Calisto & Melib. 825 Thow old which thou bryngyst me in grete dole. 1831Coleridge Table-t. 7 July, There are only three classes into which all the women past seventy that ever I knew were to be divided:—1. That dear old soul: 2. That old woman: 3. That old witch. 1884F. M. Crawford Roman Singer i, Mariuccia is an old witch.
4. Applied to various animals and objects.
a. The stormy petrel. b. A West Indian name for Crotophaga ani, a black bird of the cuckoo family. c. A kind of snail. d. In a loom: = dobby 3. e. witch of Agnesi (Math.): a plane curve named after M. G. Agnesi (1718–99) of the university of Bologna.
a.1784Pennant Arctic Zool. (1792) II. 255 Stormy Petrel...hated by the sailors, who call them Witches, imagining they forbode a storm. 1885Swainson Prov. Names Birds 211 Storm-Petrel...Witch, or Water-witch.
b.1884Coues N. Amer. Birds 472 Black Witch. Savanna Blackbird.
c.1815Burrow Elem. Conchol. 204 Helix Scarabæus, Witch or Cockchafer.
d.1883Almondbury & Huddersfield Gloss., Witch, a machine which stands on the top of a loom, and was used previously to the jacquard machine for the purpose of figuring the cloth. 1909Century Dict. Suppl., Witch,..a dobby or index-machine.
e.1875B. Williamson Integral Calculus vii. 173 Find the area between the witch of Agnesi xy2 = 4a2 (2a - x) and its asymptote. 1901A. B. Basset Elem. Cubic & Quartic Curves 96 Then the locus of P is a cubic called the witch of Agnesi.
5. attrib. and Comb.
a. General combs.: simple attrib., as witch-act (act n. 5), witch gang, witch-legion, witch-lore, witch-plot, witch-pupil, witch-trial; with the meaning ‘used in witchcraft or by witches in their enchantments’, as witch-broth, witch-charming, witch-ointment, witch-sabbath (Sabbath 3), witch-salve, witch thing; appositive, as witch-bird (bird n. 4), witch-bride, witch carline, witch cummer, witch-hag, witch-hare, witch-huntress, witch-maid, witch-maiden, witch-people, witch-wife, witch-wolf, witch-woman; objective, etc., as witch-advocate, witch-burner, witch-master, witch-pricker (pricker 1), witch-searcher, witch-seeker, witch-trier; witch-burning, witch-roasting; also witch-like adj. and adv.; instrumental, as witch-held, witch-ridden, witch stricken, adjs.; similative, as witch-wise adj.b. Special combs.: witch-ball, (a) (see quot. 1866); (b) a hollow ball of (usu. coloured or silvered) glass, formerly displayed in a house as a charm against witchcraft and now for decorative purposes; witch-bell(s, Sc., a name for the harebell, Campanula rotundifolia; witch bottle, a stone or glass bottle, filled with urine, nails, hair, etc., which was either burned or heated for the purpose of repelling or breaking a witch's power over her victim; witch-bowl, a decorative circular glass bowl; witch broom, butter = witches' broom, butter (see c below); witch cake, a preparation used to test a supposed witch, or made by a witch for the purposes of incantation; witch-chap dial. = plough-witch (see plough n.1 8); witch dance, a ritual dance performed by witches; witch-fire = corposant; witch gowan (see gowan 2); witch-grass U.S., (a) Panicum capillare, a weed-grass found throughout the U.S., also called old-witch grass; (b) couch-grass, Triticum (Agropyrum) repens; witch-hat, a hat with a conical crown and flat brim, represented as worn by witches; witch-hopple U.S. = hobble-bush; witch-hunter = witch-finder; so witch-hunting; witch-lock = witch-knot 1; also transf.; witch-loom (see 4 d above); witch-man, (a) a wizard; (b) dial. = witch-chap; witch-mania, a mania or craze for witches and witchcraft; witch-mark, a mark on the body, supposed by witch-finders to denote that its possessor was a witch; witch-meal = lycopodium 2; witch-meeting = witches' meeting (see c below); witch-pap (see quots.); witch-post, in Yorkshire, a wooden post, usually of mountain ash, marked with a cross and built into a house as a protection against witches; witch-riding, the nightmare; witch-smelling, the smelling out of witches; also fig., witch-hunting; witch stitch (see quot.); witch-stone, a flat stone with a natural perforation, used as a charm against witchcraft; † witch-water, contemptuous name for holy water; witch-weed S. Afr., a parasitic plant, Striga lutea; witchwork, witchcraft.
1758M. W. Montague Let. 14 Nov. (1967) III. 188, I..am convinced of the necessity of the repeal of the *Witch-act (as it is commonly called). 1777Brand Pop. Antiq. App. 319 The Witch-Act..was not repealed till the Year 1736.
a1680Glanvill Sadducismus ii. (1681) 9, I have..almost spoiled all Mr. Webster's..and the other *Witch-Advocate Books. 1815Scott Guy M. xi, Witch-advocates, atheists, and mis-believers of all kinds.
1866Treas. Bot., *Witch-balls, interwoven roller-masses of the stems of herbaceous plants, often met with in the steppes of Tartary. 1916J. H. Yoxall Collecting Old Glass v. 38 Witch-balls seem to have been made at Bristol,..at Nailsea..and at Wrockwardine... These balls, it is said, were hung at each door and window, ‘to keep the witches out’. 1927Daily Express 22 June 9/4 There is a fashion just now to collect the deep blue or silver glass balls which our forefathers hung about the house to keep witches away. ‘Witch balls’ they were called. 1952L. MacNeice Autumn Leaves 19 The witch⁓ball on the stairs. 1978E. Ellenbogen tr. Simenon's Maigret & Toy Village ii. 34 Its houses..its tiny carefully⁓tended gardens, its clay animals and glass witchballs.
1808Jamieson, *Witch-bell, round-leaved Bell-flower, Campanula rotundifolia. 1826Hogg Love's Jubilee 112 The witch-bell blue.
1698Prestwick Kirk Sess. Rec. (MS.), Margaret Hood accused of calling Agnes Cuthbertson a ‘*witch-bird’.
1893Jrnl. Brit. Archaeol. Assoc. XLIX. 267 Nails were formerly placed in an earthen vessel, and buried beneath the floor, near the hearth, to keep away the witches, and to afford protection from the ‘evil eye’; hence such vessels were called ‘witch-jugs’ or ‘*witch-bottles’. 1908E. Smith in A. C. Kelway Memorials Old Essex 252 An old witch⁓bottle..found ‘below the floor and very near the fireplace’..contained some water, about fourteen horse-nails, and twenty thorns! 1966G. E. Evans Pattern under Plough vi. 74 Under the hearthstone was the spot most frequently chosen to bury the witch-bottle. 1980Rescue News Sept. 2/3 Both pots must have been buried on purpose, perhaps as charms but the bellarmine is thought to be rather too early to be a witch-bottle.
1955Times 13 May 12/5 Along with salt-cellars, ash-trays, *witch-bowls, and the curious jam dishes. 1964G. Sims Terrible Door xiv. 75 What looked like a fish-bowl was a ‘witch bowl’ with glass fishes suspended from floating glass bubbles in stagnant water.
1817Scott Harold vi. vi, There of the *witch-brides lay each skeleton.
1849H. Mayo Pop. Superst. 125 The witches..by *witch-broths..would induce in themselves and in their pupils a heavy stupor.
1892Review of Reviews Feb. 170/1 (heading) A plea for the *witch-burners. 1894Advance (Chicago) 26 Apr., Do we ever hear of Episcopalians as witch burners?
1909Strand Mag. XXXVIII. 692/1 They had taken to *witch-burning. 1928G. Ade Let. 10 July (1973) 135 Sooner or later we should elect a Catholic to the Presidency just to prove that we are living in the 20th century instead of the 18th and that witch-burning and religious persecutions are no longer the pastimes of a free and intelligent people.
1849H. Mayo Pop. Superst. 126 The so-called *witch-butter found in the fields.
1693I. Mather Cases Consc. 52 Many..Magical experiments have been used to try witches by. Of this sort is that of..making a *witch-cake with that urine. 1810R. H. Cromek Nithsdale & Galloway Song 282 The baking of the ‘Witch Cake’, with its pernicious virtues, is a curious process. 1535*Witche Carling [see carline1 b].
1827Clare Sheph. Cal. 156 ‘Keep secrets, Sim’, she said, ‘I need them now, The *witch-chaps come’.
16..in P. H. Waddell Old Kirk Chron. (1893) 70 Such treatment was condemned by the Session under the head of ‘*witch-charming’.
1818Scott Br. Lamm. xxiv, Her ain *witch cummers would soon whirl her out of her shroud.
1921M. Murray Witch-Cult in Western Europe v. 132 The round dance was..essentially a *witch dance. 1971Country Life 9 Sept. 633/3 The round reel survives from the prehistoric witch⁓dance.
1893Kipling Seven Seas, Merchantmen 55 The *witch-fire climbed our channels, And flared on vane and truck.
1693C. Mather Wond. Invis. World 43 Some of the *Witch Gang have been fairly Executed.
1840J. Buel Farmer's Comp. 232 The quack, switch, or *witch grass, a variety of the fiorin, is highly nutritious, roots and all. 1855Lowell Lett. (1894) I. 269 That witch-grass which is the pest of all child-gardens.
1826Hor. Smith Tor Hill (1838) I. 131 During the reign of the *witch-hag all the herbs around the cave were blighted.
1884Folk-Lore Jrnl. II. 258 A dog cannot catch a *witch hare.
1898R. Blakeborough Wit, Char. N. Riding 160 One of the houses was suspected of being *witch-held, and every thing about the place witch-stricken.
1840C. F. Hoffman Greyslaer II. 44 Tangled thickets of moss wood and *wytch-hopple gave now the springy footing the tired hunter loves. 1943R. Peattie Great Smokies 283 This is the hobblebush or witch hobble [sic], an abundant high-mountain shrub whose large rounding leaves reach their color peak in September.
1819Shelley Faust ii. 209 *Witch-legions thicken around and around.
1723Blackmore Alfred xii. 101 Rebellion's *Witch-like Charms the Senses bind. 1815Scott Guy M. xxiii, She was..the same witch-like figure as when we first introduced her. 1880L. Wallace Ben-Hur 412 Nor was it possible to have told which was mother, which daughter; both alike seemed witch-like old.
1682H. More Cont. Remark. Stories 41 This Magical matting of the Daughter's hair into a *Witch-lock. 1914‘Amélie Rives’ World's-End xvii, Wild witch-locks of ravelled cloud.
1898Posselt Rec. Impr. Textile Mach. i. 44 Box-motion for *Witch Looms.
1891Atkinson Moorland Parish (ed. 2) 87 The copious *witch-lore of the district.
1855Kingsley Heroes, Argon. iv, This is your doing, false *witch-maid!
Ibid., Medeia the *witch-maiden.
1851T. Sternberg Dial. & Folk-Lore Northampt., *Witch⁓men, guisers who go about on Plough-Monday. 1882in Folk-Lore Jrnl. (1883) I. 91 A farmer, having a horse taken ill, sent for a well-known witchman.
1855Smedley Occult Sci. 169 Scotland was sunk into barbarism and ignorance... Never did the *witch-mania enter a nation better suited for its reception.
1677J. Webster Displ. Witchcraft v. 82 Now if all these [sc. warts, etc.] were *Witch-marks, then few would go free. 1903F. W. H. Myers Hum. Pers. I. 164 Patches of anæsthesia found upon hysterical subjects—the ‘witch-marks’ of our ancestors.
1910Kipling Rewards & Fairies 96 ‘What's a *Witch⁓master?’.. ‘A master of witches, of course.’ 1931V. Randolph in B. A. Botkin Folk-Say 86 My pappy follered gunsmithin' mostly, but he was a witch-master too.
1792Phil. Trans. LXXXII. 66 Semen lycopodii, commonly called *witch-meal.
1693C. Mather Wond. Invis. World 82 She confessed, that the Devil carry'd them on a pole, to a *Witch-meeting.
1853Dickens Bleak Ho. xi, The iron gate, on which the poisoned air deposits its *witch-ointment slimy to the touch! 1871Tylor Prim. Cult. II. xviii. 379 The mediæval witch-ointments which brought visionary beings into the presence of the patient.
1664in Hale Coll. Mod. Relat. i. (1693) 58, I have, I confess, a *Witch-pap, which is Sucked by the Unclean Spirit. 1886Cheshire Gloss., Witch-pap, a mole which hangs or projects from the skin.
1895Kipling 2nd Jungle Bk. 163 Spirits, goblins, and *witch-people.
1693C. Mather Invis. World, Enchantments Encountered 7 Which may perhaps prove no small part of the *Witch-Plot in the issue.
a1944J. Ford Some Reminiscences of Danby Parish (1953) 96 It was the custom of the Priest to cut the Roman X on the upright oak post which went up to the low ceiling... They came to be called ‘*Witch Posts’. 1957E. E. Evans Irish Folk Ways v. 64 In north Yorkshire the jamb post, called the witch post, is occasionally found to be covered with designs intended to protect the hearth from evil spirits. 1971K. Thomas Religion & Decline Magic xvii. 543 Other preservatives included ‘witch⁓posts’ built into the structure of the house.
1899Crockett Black Douglas vii. 50 Malise MacKim, a *witch pricker!.. Will he go..peering into ladies' eyes for sorceries? 1621*witch-ridden [see incubus 2]. 1795W. Hutton Hist. Derby 226 That weak and witch-ridden monarch, James the First. 1821Lamb Elia Ser. 1. Witches & other night-fears, I durst not..enter the chamber..without my face turned..aversely from the bed where my witch-ridden pillow was.
1704Athenian Oracle (ed. 2) I. 292 Q. Whether there's any such thing as a Hag, which the Common People fancy to be *Witch-riding, when they are in their Bed in the Night time?
1922Joyce Ulysses 202 A Scotch philosophaster with a turn for *witchroasting.
1841W. Spalding Italy III. 253 In the South, the *witchsabbaths are believed to be held around the Sacred Walnut-tree of Benevento.
1860R. A. Vaughan Mystics II. 256 They fare like Lucius..to whom Fotis has given the wrong *witch-salve.
1646Gaule Cases Consc. 5–6 This suspition, though it bee but late,..yet is it enough to send for the *Witch-searchers, or *witch-seekers.
1937H. G. Wells Star Begotten vii. 130 Some sort of world-wide *witch-smelling for Martians everywhere... You could tell them because instinctively you dislike them. 1940‘G. Orwell’ Inside Whale 157 Frenzied witch-smellings after ‘Bolshevism’. 1953J. S. Huxley Evolution in Action vi. 141 The witch-smelling ordeals of Africa.
1882Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework, *Witch stitch, the name given to Herringbone when used in Fancy Embroidery.
1855G. Borrow Jrnl. 23 Aug. in Exped. to Isle of Man (1915) 8 What could those *witch⁓stones be? 1870‘Ouida’ Puck vi, The old soul have a bit of belief like in witch-stones, and allus sets one aside her spinnin' jenny.
1852Mrs. Stowe Uncle Tom's C. xxxv, ‘It's a *witch thing, mas'r!’ ‘A what?’ ‘Something that niggers gets from witches’.
1830Pitcairn Crim. Trials (1833) III. ii. 603 note, This symbolical mode of taking the..produce of land, &c., is frequently alluded to in *Witch-Trials.
1649Whitelocke Mem. 13 Dec. (1853) III. 128 That the *witch-trier taking a pin, and thrusting it into the skin in many parts of their bodies, they were insensible of it.
1659Baxter Key Cath. xxix. 186 The Priest exorcised him..washing him with Holy water, *Witch water.
1904Times 25 July 12/3 Complaints..were constantly being received..of damage done..to the mealie..crop by..rooi-bloom or *witch weed.
1804R. Anderson Cumbld. Ball. 79 The *witch weyfe begg'd in our backseyde. 1867Morris Jason v. 139 As poisonous herbs..Are pounded by some witch-wife on the shore Of Pontus.
1781C. Johnston Hist. J. Juniper II. 139 The Nabob..had as constitutional an aversion to cold iron, as *witch-wise Solomon.
1609Healey Discov. New World iii. iv. 155 Here shall you haue your *Witch-wolues in aboundance.
a1765‘Northumbld. betrayd by Dowglas’ xxvi. in Child Ballads (1889) III. 412/2 My mother, shee was a *witch woman. 1897Edin. Rev. Oct. 394 Lapland witch-women.
1859H. Kingsley G. Hamlyn xiii, I suppose you keep him [sc. a black tom-cat] for some of your *witchwork.
c. Combs. with witch's, witches': witch's bells, the foxglove (cf. witch-bell in b above); witches' besom, broom, a bushy tuft developed on the branches of trees by a fungus (see quots.); witches' bridle, an iron collar and gag formerly used as an instrument of torture in Scottish witch-trials; witches' butter, a popular name for certain gelatinous algæ and fungi, esp. Tremella Nostoc; witches' coral, witch's cradle (see quots.); witch's elm = wych elm; witch's horse, witches' horses (see quots.); witches' knot = witch-knot 2; witch's mark = witch-mark (see b); witches' meat = witches' butter; witches' meeting = witches' Sabbath; witches' night (see quot.); witches' prayer (see quot. 1711); witches' Sabbath = Sabbath 3; witches' thimble, a local name for various plants with tubular flowers; witch's tit: in fanciful proverbial phr. (as) cold as a witch's tit, extremely cold.
1884R. Folkard Plant Lore 345 The witches are popularly supposed to have..decorated their fingers with its [sc. the foxglove's] largest bells, thence called ‘*Witches' Bells’.
1866Treas. Bot., *Witches' besoms, this name is given to the tufted bunches of branches,..developed on the Silver Fir in consequence of the attack of Peridermium elatinum. 1887W. Phillips Brit. Discomycetes 401 Exoascus deformans..Sadebeck says that this species produces the ‘witches' besoms’ on [species of] Prunus.
1829Pitcairn Crim. Trials (1833) I. ii. 50 Iron collars, or ‘*Witches bridles’, are still preserved in various parts of Scotland.
1881E. A. Ormerod Man. Inj. Insects 179 ‘Witch Knots’ or ‘*Witches' Brooms’ are caused by this Gall-mite. 1882Vines tr. Sachs' Bot. 332 The formation of ‘witches-brooms’ in Firs by the growth of æcidium elatinum.
1836Berkeley Fungi 218 Exidia glandulosa. (*Witches' Butter.) 1861H. Macmillan Footn. Page Nat. 288 The wrinkled, quaking, gelatinous mass of the witches' butter.
1842Dickens Amer. Notes xiv, Where poisonous fungus..sprouts like *witches' coral, from the crevices in the cabin wall and floor.
1880Antrim & Down Gloss., *Witch's cradle, a Lias fossil, Gryphea incurva.
1821Scott Kenilw. ix, I have sewn a sprig of *witch's elm in the neck of un's doublet.
1865Kingsley Herew. xx, The silence was broken by a long wild cry from the forest... It was the howl of a wolf. ‘Hark to the *witch's horse!’
1894Harper's Mag. Feb. 456 [The walking stick insect] which the country people near Salem, Massachusetts..call ‘*witches' horses’.
1825Jamieson, *Witches knots, a sort of matted bunches, resembling the nests of birds, frequently seen on stunted thorns or birches.
1627R. Bernard Guide Grand-Jury Men 218 The Witch thus in league..with the Deuill, is conuicted..1. By a *Witches marke... This is insensible, and being pricked will not bleede.
1867Chamb. Encycl. IX. 531/2 Tremella..Several species are found in Britain. In some places, they receive such popular names as *Witches' Meat and Witches' Butter.
a1676Hale Coll. Mod. Relat. (1693) i. 29 This Love of hers had..carried her at Nights to the *Witches Meetings in great Castles. 1767Hutchinson Hist. Mass. (1795) II. 38.
1686–7Aubrey Rem. Gentilism (1881) 133 'Tis Midsommer-night or Midsommer-eve (St. Jo. Baptist) is counted or called the *Witches night.
1663Butler Hud. i. iii. 344 He that gets her by heart must say her The back-way, like a *Witches Prayer. 1711Addison Spect. No. 61 ⁋5 To which I must..add a little Epigram called the Witches Prayer, that fell into Verse when it was read either backward or forward, excepting only that it Cursed one way and Blessed the other. 1864G. A. Lawrence Maurice Dering II. 218 My good wishes of late have been fearfully like witches' prayers.
a1676Hale Coll. Mod. Relat. (1693) i. 29 The *Witches Sabbaths or Assemblies, which were held in the Night. 1853Dickens Bleak Ho. viii, Such..as was never dreamed of in the wildest visions of a Witch's Sabbath.
1820Edin. Mag. Apr. 344/1 The mother..pulled some *witches thimbles, or foxglove. 1853G. Johnston Bot. E. Borders 40 S[ilene] maritima,..Witches'-Thimbles. 1866Sowerby Eng. Bot. VI. 13 Campanula rotundifolia... Hare-bell... A common rustic name for them is ‘witches' thimbles’. 1886Britten & Holland Plant-n., Witches' Thimble..4 Centaurea Cyanus.
1932Van Wyck Mason Spider House xviii. 210 It's cold as a *witch's tit outside. 1974Times 17 Aug. 7/3 It was cold as a witch's tit, so I sat there and shivered. 1980R. L. Duncan Brimstone viii. 200 Just listening to a weather report... Albuquerque's clear but cold as a witch's tit.
d. attrib. passing into adj. Magic, magical.
c1400Apol. Loll. 93 Þei þat..tenden to wiche falsnes [L. magicis falsitatibus] in hailes or tempestis. 1535Coverdale Judges ix. 37 One bonde of men commeth by the waye to y⊇ witch Oke. 1801Scott Glenfinlas lvi, And, bending o'er his harp, he flung His wildest witch-notes on the wind.
▪ III. witch, wych, n.3|wɪtʃ|
Forms: 1 wice, wic, wyc, 5–7 wyche, 6–8 wich, (6 wi(t)che, wiech, wech(e, weach, 7 weech), 6– wych, witch.
[OE. wice and wic; app. f. Teut. wik- to bend (see wike, week n., weak a.).]
Applied generally or vaguely to various trees having pliant branches: esp. †a. the wych elm, Ulmus montana (of which bows were made); b. (now dial.) the mountain ash, Pyrus aucuparia. Also attrib.; witch alder, a witch hazel with alder-like leaves, Fothergilla alnifolia, native to Virginia and North Carolina. (See also witch hazel.)
c725Corpus Gloss. (Hessels) C 106 Cariscus, cuicbeam, uuice. a1000Ags. Voc. in Wr.-Wülcker 200/20 Cariscus,..wic, uel cwicbeam. c1000Sax. Leechd. II. 86 Ᵹenim cwic⁓beam rinde..wir, wice, ac, [etc.]. c1440Promp. Parv. 526/1 Wyche, tre, ulmus. 1534Star Chamber Cases (Selden Soc.) II. 308 Mulso..wrongfully fellid xxvij trees of asche and wyche. 1537St. Papers Hen. VIII, II. 483 That 3 or 4000 wyche bowes..be brought hyther. 1548Turner Names Herbes (1881) 81 Vlmus is called..in englishe an Elme tree, or a Wich tree. 1556Withals Dict. (1562) 23/2 A witche tree, opulus. 1579Spenser Sheph. Cal. June 20 Nor holybush, nor brere, nor winding witche. 1613[Standish] New Direct. Planting 11 As of Elme, so of Wyche, being a wood as apt to grow speedily as any other wood. 1616T. Scot Philomythie ii. B 4 b, The cursed Eldar and the fatall Yewe, With Witch, and Nightshade in their shadowes grew. 1845–50A. H. Lincoln Lect. Bot. App. 103 Fothergilla alnifolia (witch-alder). 1861D. H. Haigh Conq. Brit. 78 The mountain-ash, rown, or witch. 1868Atkinson Cleveland Gloss., Witch-wood, the mountain ash or rowan-tree. 1869Lonsdale Gloss., Witch-wand, a twig of the mountain ash, once used to find minerals.
▪ IV. witch, n.4 local.|wɪtʃ|
Also whitch.
[prob. a use of witch n.2, the name being given on account of the uncanny appearance of the fish; cf. uses of L. sāga, F. sorcière, It. strega.]
The flatfish Pleuronectes cynoglossus, resembling the lemon sole; applied also to similar fishes.
1879Satchell Provis. Index Fish Names 9 Pleuronectes microcephalus..Lemon-Dab, Lemon-Sole,..Witch. Hippoglossoides limandoides,..Long-Fleuk,..Witch. 1882Academy 14 Oct. 280 Whitches.—These fish, well known in Grimsby and Manchester,..The term is used..to denote..the craig-fluke (Pleuronectes cynoglossus, Lin.), a kind of dab, which is taken in considerable numbers in the North Sea..These fish are sometimes called white soles. 1903Times 21 Feb. 17/3 Plaice, witches, smelts, and herrings.
▪ V. witch, v.1|wɪtʃ|
Forms: 1 wiccian, 4 wicc(h)e, (4 witche, Sc. weche, 4–5 wiche, wyche, 5 wyc(c)hyn, wysshyn), 5–6 wytche, 6– witch.
[OE. wiccian, corresp. to MG., LG. wikken, wicken, of obscure origin. In the senses arising in ME. and later prob. aphetic from bewitch.]
†1. intr. To practise witchcraft; to use sorcery or enchantment. Obs.
c1000Pœnit. Ecgbert xviii. in Thorpe Laws (1840) II. 208 Ᵹif hwa wicciᵹe ymbe æniᵹes mannes lufe. a1300E.E. Psalter lvii[i]. 5 A neddre def..Þat noght sal here þe steuen of wicchand. c1350Will. Palerne 2539 Were þei boþe here, Þei schuld wicche wel ȝif þei a-wei went. 1623T. Scott Projector 30 Hath not Iesabell painted, and whored, and plotted, and witched, and waded through blood?
2. trans. To affect (a person) with witchcraft or sorcery; to put a spell upon; = bewitch 1.
13..Evang. Nicod. 216 in Herrig Archiv LIII. 395 Wyched þi wyf has he. c1350Will. Palerne 4427 Þat neuer man vpon mold miȝt it [sc. the ring] him on haue, ne schuld he with wicchecraft be wicched neuer-more. c1375Sc. Leg. Saints iii. (Andreas) 64 Þane þat ȝong manis kyne in hy Sad, he was wechyt, sekyrly! c1400Rowland & Otuel 1151 Foully there thou wichede was. 1525Ld. Berners Froiss. II. ccxx. [ccxvi.] 282 b/1 They..sayd, that the duchesse Ualentyne of Orlyaunce, doughter to the duke of Myllayn, hadde witched the kynge. 1596in Spalding Club Misc. I. 87 His wyiff was witchit be his narrest nychtbour. 1605London Prodigal i. ii. 63, I thinke I am sure crossed, or witcht with an owle. 1647J. March Actions for Slaunder 15 Thou art a Witch..and diddest procure Mother Bale to witch the Cattell of J. S. 1883Folk-Lore Jrnl. I. 354 A servant..told me when her mother was confined a man in the village ‘witched her’, so that she could not move in bed. 1884Tennyson Becket iii. ii, Our woodland Circe that hath witch'd the King. 1884Mark Twain Huck. Finn xxxiv, He said the witches was pestering him..and he didn't believe he was ever witched so long, before, in his life.
b. (with prep. or adv.) To bring, draw, put, or change by witchcraft.
1597Jas. VI Dæmonol. ii. i. 28 If Witches had such power of Witching of folkes to death (as they say they haue). 1608Chapman Byron's Trag. iv. i. O 2, O that in mine eyes Were all the Sorcerous poyson of my woes, That I might witch ye headlong from your height. 1693I. Mather Cases Consc. 26 See if you can Witch them into a Fit,..and..Witch them well again. 1855Meredith Shav. Shagpat (1909) 223 He's witched there for an ill purpose. 1871Tylor Prim. Cult. I. iv. 103 Hindus settled in Chota-Nagpur..believe that the Mundas..can witch away the lives of man and beast. 1892G. F. Northall Eng. Folk-Rhymes 59 People say that the remarkable stones at Rollwright..are a regiment of soldiers witched into stones.
3. fig. To influence as by witchcraft; to enchant, charm; = bewitch 2. Also with prep. or adv.
1590Spenser F.Q. ii. vii. 10 Thy..pleasing charmes, With which weake men thou witchest, to attend. 1592Greene Groat's W. Wit (1617) 10 [Loue] Witching chast eares with trothless tongs of men. 1596Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, iv. i. 110 As if an Angell dropt downe from the Clouds, To..witch the World with Noble Horsemanship. 1611Beaum. & Fl. King & No K. 111, With her eyes She witches people. 1812Cary Dante, Purg. xiv. 112 The ladies and the knights, the toils and ease, That witch'd us into love and courtesy. 1824Campbell Theodric 30 Her fingers witch'd the chords they passed along. 1876Geo. Eliot Dan. Der. i. iv, Her witching the world with her grace on horseback.
b. intr. To use enchanting wiles; to practise fascination.
1580Lyly Euphues (Arb.) 407 Applied to those that witch with the eyes, not to those that wooe with their eyes. 1824Byron Juan xvi. xcv, Adeline was..watching, witching, condescending.
▪ VI. witch, v.2 U.S.|wɪtʃ|
[f. witch n.3]
intr. and trans. To dowse for water with a divining rod. Hence ˈwitcher, a dowser.
1963G. Thomson Crocus Country xi. 74 The term to ‘witch for water’ is said to come from the fact that it was usually done with a witch-hazel wand. Ibid., The witcher would walk up and down in the general area where a well was needed, with the ends of a forked hazel twig held firmly in his hands. 1970J. Blackburn Land of Promise ii. 32 The witcher came to a place where the stem of the willow could no longer be held upright. 1978Country Life 7 Dec. 1953/3 He got a well-digger to survey the site... The first driller and others consulted all ‘witched’ the situation. |