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 sb.1, both of which are app. derivatives of wiccian WITCH v.]
1. 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.
c. 1000. Ælfric, Saints’ Lives, vii. 209. Animað … þa reðan wiccan, Seo þe ðus awent þurh wiccecræft manna mod.
a. 1100. Aldhelm Gloss., I. 1926 (Napier 52/1). P(h)itonissam, .i. diuinatricem, helhrunan, wiccan.
c. 1290. St. Kath., 279, in S. Eng. Leg., 100. Faste ȝe schulle þe wychche binde,… And smitez of hire heued a-non.
1303. R. Brunne, Handl. Synne, 499. Lo here a tale of a wycche, Þat leued no better þan a bycche.
c. 1375. Sc. Leg. Saints, I. (Katerine), 1088. [He] gert þis katrine till hyme feite, & sad hir: ‘þu wikide wiche, Quhat wenis þu ws lang to preche?’
c. 1400. Destr. Troy, 11182. The worthy, þat wicche hase wastid to dethe.
1440. Wyrcester, in Wars Eng. in Fr. (Rolls), II. II. 763. Alia mulier magica, vocata vulgariter Wyche of Eye,… capla est…, et apud Smythfeld cremata.
1471. Caxton, Recuyell (Sommer), 243. Iuno the false wycche and sorceresse.
1500–20. Dunbar, Poems, xxxv. 35. Jonet the weido on ane bussome rydand, Off wichiss with ane windir garesoun.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. iii. 34. See how the vgly Witch doth bend her browes, As if with Circe, she would change my shape.
1656. W. Coles, Art of Simpling, 67. Leaves of Elder … which to disappoint the Charmes of Witches, they had affixed to their Doores and Windowes.
1711. Addison, Spect., No. 117, ¶ 10. When an old Woman begins to doat, and grow chargeable to a Parish, she is generally turned into a Witch.
1790. Burns, Tam o’ Shanter, 200. The witches follow, Wi’ mony an eldritch skriech and hollo.
1868. Tennyson, Lucretius, 15. She … Dreaming some rival, sought and found a witch Who brew’d the philtre.
1901. Rhys, Celtic Folklore, iv. 294. I have heard of one old witch changing herself into a pigeon.
b. With masculine prefix.
1601. Strange Reg. Sixe Notorious Witches, B ij. Men-Witches.
1653. Gataker, 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.
1819. C’tess Spencer, Lett., 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.
1919. R. R. Marett, in Q. Rev., April, 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.
a. 1654. Selden, Table-talk (Arb.), 82. When a Country-wench cannot get her Butter to come, she says, The Witch is in her Churn.
1843. Daily Picayune, 1 July, 2/3. Out of temper and nervous as a witch, you are incapable of appreciating it.
1885. Howells, Silas Lapham, xvii. 325. She rose from her struggle with the problem, and said aloud to herself, ‘Well, the witch is in it.’
1911. F. M. Crawford, Uncanny Tales, Man Overboard (1917), 132. She’s been as nervous as a witch all day.
1918. Eleanor H. Porter, Oh, Money! Money! xvii. He’s nervous as a witch. He can’t keep still a minute.
† 2. transf. The nightmare. Obs.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 526/2. Wytche, clepyd nyghte mare…, epialtes.
1585. Higins, 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.
1659. W. Brough, Sacr. Princ., 240. Save me from vain pleasures, the great witches of the world.
1708. Brit. 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.
1820. Shelley, 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.
1740. Richardson, Pamela (1824), I. xxiv. 37. Mrs. Jervis, said he, take the little witch from me.
1800. T. D. Whitaker, Whalley, I. 184, note. In … 1634 was acted … a play entitled The Witches of Lancaster.… The term bas since been transferred to a gentler species of fascination, which my fair countrywomen still continue to exert in full force.
1834. Lytton, Pompeii, I. ii. For my part I find every woman a witch.
1845. Mrs. S. C. 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,’ Bootle’s 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.
c. 1430. Lydg., Min. Poems (Percy Soc.), 168. A lusti galaunt that weddithe an olde wiche.
a. 1536. Calisto & Melib., 825. Thow old which thou bryngyst me in grete dole.
1831. Coleridge, 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.
1834. F. 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. 1784. Pennant, Arctic Zool. (1792), II. 255. Stormy Petrel. … hated by the sailors, who call them Witches, imagining they forebode a storm.
1885. Swainson, Prov. Names Birds, 211. Storm-Petrel…. Witch, or Water-witch.
b. 1884. Coues, N. Amer. Birds, 472. Black Witch. Savanna Blackbird.
c. 1815. Burrow, Elem. Conchol., 204. Helix Scarabæus, Witch or Cockchafer.
d. 1883. Almondbury & 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.
1909. Century Dict., Suppl., Witch,… a dobby or index-machine.
e. 1875. B. Williamson, Integral Calculus, vii. 173. Find the area between the witch of Agnesi xy2 = 4a2(2a–x) and its asymptote.
1901. A. 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 sb. 5), gang, -legion, -lore, -plot, -pupil, -trial; with the meaning ‘used in witchcraft or by witches in their enchantments,’ as witch-broth, -charming, -ointment, -sabbath (SABBATH 3), -salve, thing; appositive, as witch-bird (BIRD sb. 4), -bride, carline, cummer, -hag, -hare, -huntress, -maid, -maiden, -people, -wife, -wolf, -woman; objective, etc., as witch-advocate, -burner, -pricker (PRICKER 1), -searcher, -seeker, -trier; also witch-like adj. and adv.; instrumental, as witch-held, -ridden, -stricken adjs.; similative, as witch-wise adj. b. Special combs.: witch-balls (see quot.); witch-bell(s, Sc., a name for the harebell, Campanula rotundifolia; 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 purposes of incantation; witch-chap dial. = plough-witch (see PLOUGH sb.1 8); 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-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-riding, the nightmare; 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.
1777. Brand, Pop. Antiq., App. 319. The *Witch-Act … was not repealed till the Year 1736.
a. 1680. Glanvill, Sadducismus, II. (1681), 9. I have … almost spoiled all Mr. Webster’s … and the other *Witch-Advocate Books.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xi. Witch-advocates, atheists, and mis-believers of all kinds.
1866. Treas. Bot., *Witch-balls, interwoven roller-masses of the stems of herbaceous plants, often met with in the steppes of Tartary.
1808. Jamieson, *Witch-bell, round-leaved Bell flower, Campanula rotundifolia.
1826. Hogg, Love’s Jubilee, 112. The witch-bell blue.
1698. Prestwick Kirk Sess. Rec. (MS.). Margaret Hood accused of calling Agnes Cuthbertson a *‘witch-bird.’
1817. Scott, Harold, VI. vi. There of the *witch-brides lay each skeleton.
1849. H. Mayo, Pop. Superst., 125. The witches … by *witch-broths … would induce in themselves and in their pupils a heavy stupor.
1894. Advance (Chicago), 26 April. Do we ever hear of Episcopalians as *witch burners?
1849. H. Mayo, Pop. Superst., 126. The so-called *witch-butter found in the fields.
1693. I. 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.
1810. R. 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].
1827. Clare, 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.’
1818. Scott, Br. Lamm., xxiv. Her ain *witch cummers would soon whirl her out of her shroud.
1893. Kipling, Seven Seas, Merchantmen, 55. The *witch-fire climbed our channels, And flared on vane and truck.
1693. C. Mather, Wond. Invis. World, 43. Some of the *Witch Gang have been fairly Executed.
1840. Buel, Farmer’s Comp., 232. The quack, switch, or *witch grass, a variety of the fiorin, is highly nutritious, roots and all.
1855. Lowell, Lett. (1894), I. 269. That witch-grass which is the pest of all child-gardens.
1826. Hor. Smith, Tor Hill (1838), I. 131. During the reign of the *witch-hag all the herbs around the cave were blighted.
1884. Folk-Lore Jrnl., II. 258. A dog cannot catch a *witch hare.
1898. R. Blakeborough, Wit, Char. N. Riding, 160. One of the houses was suspected of being *witch-held, and every thing about the place witch-stricken.
1819. Shelley, Faust, ii. 209. *Witch-legions thicken around and around.
1723. Blackmore, Alfred, XII. 101. Rebellion’s *Witch-like Charms the Senses bind.
1815. Scott, Guy M., xxiii. She was … the same witch-like figure as when we first introduced her.
1880. L. Wallace, Ben-Hur, 412. Nor was it possible to have told which was mother, which daughter; both alike seemed witch-like old.
1682. H. 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.
1898. Posselt, Rec. Impr. Textile Mach., I. 44. Box-motion for *Witch Looms.
1891. Atkinson, Moorland Parish (ed. 2), 87. The copious *witch-lore of the district.
1855. Kingsley, Heroes, Argon., iv. This is your doing, false *witch-maid! Ibid. Medeia the *witch-maiden.
1851. T. Sternberg, Dial. Folk-Lore Northampt., *Witch-men, guisers who go about on Plough-Monday.
1882. in Folk-Lore Jrnl. (1883), I. 91. A farmer, having a horse taken ill, sent for a well-known witchman.
1855. Smedley, Occult Sci., 169. Scotland was sunk into barbarism and ignorance…. Never did the *witch-mania enter a nation better suited for its reception.
1677. J. Webster, Displ. Witchcraft, v. 82. Now if all these [sc. warts, etc.] were *Witch-marks, then few would go free.
1903. F. W. H. Myers, Hum. Pers., I. 164. Patches of anæsthesia found upon hysterical subjects—the ‘witch-marks’ of our ancestors.
1792. Phil. Trans., LXXXII. 66. Semen lycopodii, commonly called *witch-meal.
1693. C. Mather, Wond. Invis. World, 82. She confessed, that the Devil carry’d them on a pole, to a *Witch-meeting.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., xi. The iron gate, on which the poisoned air deposits its *witch-ointment slimy to the touch!
1871. Tylor, Prim. Cult., II. xviii. 379. The mediæval witch-ointments which brought visionary beings into the presence of the patient.
1664. in Hale, Coll. Mod. Relat., I. (1693), 58. I have, I confess, a *Witch-pap, which is Sucked by the Unclean Spirit.
1886. Cheshire Gloss., Witch-pap, a mole which bangs or projects from the skin.
1895. Kipling, 2nd Jungle Bk., 163. Spirits, goblins, and *witch-people.
1693. C. Mather, Invis. World, Enchantments Encountered, 7. Which may perhaps prove no small part of the *Witch-Plot in the issue.
1899. Crockett, Black Douglas, vii. 50. Malise MacKim, a *witch pricker!… Will he go … peering into ladies’ eyes for sorceries?
1621. *witch-ridden [see INCUBUS 2].
1795. W. Hutton, Hist. Derby, 226. That weak and witch-ridden monarch, James the First.
1821. Lamb, Elia, Ser. I. Witches & other night-fears. I durst not … enter the chamber … without my face turned … aversely from the bed where my witch-ridden pillow was.
1704. Athenian 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?
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., III. 253. In the South, the *witchsabbaths are believed to be held around the Sacred Walnut-tree of Benevento.
1860. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics, II. 256. They fare like Lucius … to whom Fotis has given the wrong *witch-salve.
1646. Gaule, Cases Consc., 5–6. This suspition, though it bee but late,… yet is it enough to send for the *Witch-searchers, or *witch-seekers.
1882. Caulfeild & Saward, Dict. Needlework, *Witch stitch, the name given to Herringbone when used in Fancy Embroidery.
1870. ‘Ouida,’ Puck, vi. The old soul have a bit of belief like in *witch-stones, and allus sets one aside her spinnin’ jenny.
1852. Mrs. Stowe, Uncle Tom’s C., xxxv. ‘It’s a *witch thing, mas’r!’ ‘A what?’ ‘Something that niggers gets from witches.’
1830. Pitcairn, Crim. Trials (1833), III. II. 603, note. This symbolical mode of taking the … produce of land, &c., is frequently alluded to in *Witch-Trials.
1649. Whitelocke, 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.
1659. Baxter, Key Cath., xxix. 186. The Priest exorcised him … washing him with Holy water, *Witch water.
1904. Times, 25 July, 12/3. Complaints of damage done to the crop by cut-worms, mealie grubs, aphides, and rooi-bloom or *witch weed (a parasitic plant growing upon the root).
1804. R. Anderson, Cumbld. Ball., 79. The *witch weyfe begg’d in our backseyde.
1867. Morris, Jason, V. 139. As poisonous herbs … Are pounded by some witch-wife on the shore Of Pontus.
1781. C. Johnston, Hist. J. Juniper, II. 139. The Nabob … had as constitutional an aversion to cold iron, as *witch-wise Solomon.
1609. Healey, Discov. New World, III. iv. 155. Here shall you haue your *Witch-wolues in aboundance.
a. 1765. ‘Northumbld. betrayd by Dowglas,’ xxvi. in Child, Ballads (1889), III. 412/2. My mother, shee was a *witch woman.
1897. Edin. Rev., Oct., 394. Sombre legends of Lapland witchwomen.
1859. H. 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.
1884. R. 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.’
1866. Treas. 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.
1887. W. Phillips, Brit. Discomycetes, 401. Exoascus deformans … Sadebeck says that this species produces the ‘witches’ besoms’ on [species of] Prunus.
1829. Pitcairn, Crim. Trials (1833), I. II. 50. Iron collars, or *‘Witches bridles,’ are still preserved in various parts of Scotland.
1881. Eleanor A. Ormerod, Man. Inj. Insects, 179. ‘Witch Knots’ or *‘Witches’ Brooms’ are caused by this Gall-mite.
1882. Vines, trans. Sachs’ Bot., 332. The formation of ‘witches-brooms’ in Firs by the growth of Æcidium elatinum.
1836. Berkeley, Fungi, 218. Exidia glandulosa. (*Witches’ Butter.)
1861. H. Macmillan, Footn. Page Nat., 288. The wrinkled, quaking, gelatinous mass of the witches’ butter.
1842. Dickens, Amer. Notes, xiv. Where poisonous fungus … sprouts like *witches’ coral, from the crevices in the cabin wall and floor.
1880. Antrim & Down Gloss., *Witch’s cradle, a Lias fossil, Gryphea incurva.
1821. Scott, Kenilw., ix. I have sewn a sprig of *witch’s elm in the neck of un’s doublet.
1865. Kingsley, 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!’
1894. S. H. Scudder, in Harper’s Mag., Feb., 456/1. [The walking stick insect] which the country people near Salem, Massachusetts (is it a relic of old-time superstition?) call *‘witches’ horses.’
1825. Jamieson, *Witches knots, a sort of matted bunches, resembling the nests of birds, frequently seen on stunted thorns or birches.
1627. R. 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.
1867. Chamb. 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.
a. 1676. Hale, Coll. Mod. Relat. (1693), I. 29. This Love of hers had … carried her at Nights to the *Witches Meetings in great Castles.
1767. Hutchinson, Hist. Mass. (1795), II. 38.
1686–7. Aubrey, Rem. Gentilism (1881), 133. ’Tis Midsommer-night or Midsommer-eve (St. Jo. Baptist) is counted or called the *Witches night.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. iii. 344. He that gets her by heart must say her The back-way, like a *Witches Prayer.
1711. Addison, 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.
1864. G. A. Lawrence, Maurice Dering, II. 218. My good wishes of late have been fearfully like witches’ prayers.
a. 1676. Hale, Coll. Mod. Relat. (1693), I. 29. The *Witches Sabbaths or Assemblies, which were held in the Night.
1853. Dickens, Bleak Ho., viii. Such … as was never dreamed of in the wildest visions of a Witch’s Sabbath.
1820. Edin. Mag., April, 344/1. The mother … pulled some *witches thimbles, or foxglove.
1853. G. Johnston, Bot. E. Borders, 40. S[ilene] maritima,… Witches’-Thimbles.
1866. Sowerby, Eng. Bot., VI. 13. Campanula rotundifolia.… Hare-bell…. A common rustic name for them is ‘witches’ thimbles.’
1886. Britten & Holland, Plant-n., Witches’ Thimble … 4 Centaurea Cyanus.
d. attrib. passing into adj. Magic, magical.
c. 1400. Apol. Loll., 93. Þei þat … tenden to wiche falsnes [L. magicis falsitatibus] in hailes or tempestis.
1535. Coverdale, Judges ix. 37. One bonde of men commeth by the waye to ye witch Oke.
1801. Scott, Glenfinlas, lvi. And, bending o’er his harp, he flung His wildest witch-notes on the wind.
