Also 6–7 sorceres. [a. AF. sorceresse, -esce: see SORCER and -ESS1.]
1. A female sorcerer; a witch.
c. 1384. Chaucer, H. Fame, III. 1262. Ther saugh I … charmeresses, Olde wrecches, Sorceresses, That vse exorsisacions.
1390. Gower, Conf., III. 49. Thes queenes were as tuo goddesses Of Art magique Sorceresses.
1470–85. Malory, Arthur, VI. iv. 187. Sore I am of these quenes sorceresses aferd.
1509. Hawes, Past. Pleas., xxxvi. (Percy Soc.), 188. The sorceresse, the false roote of doloure, All of golde … Of the best made the head serpentyne.
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VI., 112. Jhon duke of Alaunson and his sorceresse Jone (called the mayde, sent from God).
1638. Junius, Paint. Ancients, 173. Diogenes … witnesseth Medea to have been not a sorceresse, but a woman of knowne wisdome.
1671. Milton, Samson, 819. How cunningly the sorceress displays Her own transgressions, to upbraid me mine!
a. 1740. Waterland, Wks. (1823), IX. 413. How unlikely is it that God should make use of this sorceress as a prophetess, and should give her the honour of revealing his counsels.
1832. W. Irving, Alhambra, I. 183. Or it may be one of those northern sorceresses, who assume the most seducing forms to beguile the unwary.
1885. Pater, Marius the Epicurean, I. v. 62. In one very remote village lives the sorceress Pamphile.
transf. a. 1700. Ken, Hymnotheo, Poet. Wks. 1721, III. 95. Much more mysterious is my inbred Lust; In no one thing I can the Sorc’ress trust.
attrib. 1841. W. Spalding, Italy & It. Isl., II. 319. Armida, the sorceress-niece of the Sultan of Damascus.
1877. ‘Rita,’ Vivienne, III. vi. Blanche repaid him with sorceress smiles and false kisses.
b. In playful or familiar use.
c. 1800. H. K. White, Lett. (1837), 282. Sorceress! I cannot burst thy bonds!
1859. Geo. Eliot, A. Bede, I. I. v. 97. Ah! you witch-mother, you sorceress! How is a Christian man to win a game off of you?
