Forms: 4–7 enchaunt(e)ment, 5–8 inchaunt(e)ment, 3– enchantment. [a. OF. enchantement, f. enchanter to ENCHANT: see -MENT.]
1. The action or process of enchanting, or of employing magic or sorcery.
1297. R. Glouc. (1724), 10. A clerk þoru enchantement hym bi gan to telle.
c. 1386. Chaucer, Knt.’s T., 1943. Thenchauntementz of Medea and Circes.
c. 1400. Maundev., iv. (1839), 25. It is made be Enchauntement.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, IV. x. By the damoysels enchauntement the swerd … felle oute of Accolans hande.
1526. Tindale, Rev. xviii. 23. With thyne inchantment were deceaved all nacions.
1651. Hobbes, Leviath., III. xxxvii. 236. There is no place of Scripture, that telleth us what an Enchantment is.
1710. Steele, Tatler, No. 9, ¶ 2. I saw his great Coach … by a strange Inchantment turned into many different Vehicles.
1828. Scott, F. M. Perth, xxxiv. That he was under the influence of enchantment, was a solution which superstition had suggested.
1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 79. Poetical fables have placed Charlemagne in a world of heroism and enchantment.
2. fig. Alluring or overpowering charm; enraptured condition; (delusive) appearance of beauty.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. I. 1179/68. Th’ inchantment of her Riches.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Praise Drunk., Poet. Wks. 1730, I. 32. The soft enchantment of the Vine.
1799. Campbell, Pleas. Hope, I. 7. ’Tis distance lends enchantment to the view.
1823. Lamb, Elia, I. xviii. (1865), 137. Is there not … some of the child’s heart left, to respond to its earliest enchantments.
1870. Emerson, Soc. & Solit., Farming, Wks. (Bohn), III. 60. There is a great deal of enchantment in a chestnut rail.
1872. Morley, Voltaire (1886), 3. The delight of enchantment among ideas of grace and beauty.
