Webster
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Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Witch

Witch (wĭch), 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.]

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.]

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. (Zoöl.) 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.

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.

Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Noah Porter, editor (Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913). Public domain. Text as transcribed by MICRA, Inc., from Project Gutenberg. Changed for Deep Dive Bible: Greek, which our source spelled in Latin letters, set in Greek letters; entries of one spelling merged into one article; Greek words our source left out (shown as “?”), read from the 1898 printing, from the same plates (the Library of Congress’s copy), where the place could be found with certainty.