(For the general sense ‘a woman who is wise’ see WISE a. 1.)
1. A woman skilled in magic or hidden arts; a female magician, soothsayer, etc.; a witch, sorceress; esp. a harmless or beneficent one, who deals in charms against disease, misfortune, or malignant witchcraft. Now dial. or arch.
1382. Wyclif, 2 Sam. xiv. 2. Joab … sente to Thekuam, and took thens a wise womman.
1552. Huloet, Wise woman that telleth fortune.
1598. Shaks., Merry W., IV. v. 27. Was’t not the Wise-woman of Brainford?
1601. W. Percy, Cuckqueanes & Cuckolds Errants, V. vi. (Roxb.), 74. I haue haunted a wise woman of our Parish in Maldon, hath taught mee the spell of eury each of them.
1612. [see WISE MAN 3].
1653. H. More, Antid. Ath., III. vii. § 8 (1712), 107. The help and skill of the Witch or Wise-woman.
1828. Hone, Table Bk., II. 777. An old woman … who was … accounted a wise woman, and a practiser of the ‘art that none may name.’
1875. in Miss Jackson, Shropsh. Folk-lore (1883), 146. I asked him if Mrs. P—— was a witch? He answered, she was a wise woman, and only used her knowledge to stop others doing wrong.
1885. A. H. Bullen, in Dict. Nat. Biog., I. 112/2. In his extremity he sought the assistance of a wise woman, Alison Pearson, who treated him so successfully that he completely recovered. His enemies ascribed his cure to witchcraft.
2. A midwife (= F. sage-femme): cf. SAGE a. 2 b.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., xxiv. ‘O, what, you have got the wise woman, then?’ said Varney.
