sortilege

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“
A moment after he was assuring himself that the folk he had fallen in with were ignorant of everything but cockering, without knowledge of witchcraft, star-mongering or sortilege--the servants of some great Roman, without doubt, which was sufficient assurance that though they might be cock stealers on occasion they were not kidnappers.

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Definitions (4)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. noun The act or practice of foretelling the future by drawing lots.
  2. noun Sorcery; witchcraft.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (1)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (1)

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Examples (30)

  • "She insists on their misdeeds, reproaches them roundly with selling the Holy Spirit, with practising sortilege, and with using the Sacrament to compose evil charms And there are besides the disorderly vices of which she accuses them in the series concerning the sin of the flesh," added the oblate Certainly, she does not mince her words, but she had the right to take up that tone, and menace in the name of the Lord, for she was truly inspired by Him. —  En Route
  • He had recourse to every superstition of sortilege, clairvoyance, presentiment, and dreams. —  Lost 1898
  • A moment after he was assuring himself that the folk he had fallen in with were ignorant of everything but cockering, without knowledge of witchcraft, star-mongering or sortilege--the servants of some great Roman, without doubt, which was sufficient assurance that though they might be cock stealers on occasion they were not kidnappers. —  The Brook Kerith A Syrian story
  • Also there was a great sortilege-making. —  The Path of the King
  • Perhaps that was the secret of her sortilege. —  The Shadow Line; a confession
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (2)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French, from Medieval Latin sortilegium, from sortilegus, diviner : Latin sors, sort-, lot; see ser-2 in Indo-European roots + Latin legere, to read; see leg- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (1)

  1. Formerly also sortelige; from French sortilège, from Middle Latin sortilegium, divination by lot (cf. Latin sortilegus, foretelling, prophetic), from Latin sor (t-)s, a lot, + legere, read.
 

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/ˈsɔrtɪlɛdʒ/
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