witch

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“
Queen Joan, who was called a witch, -- but a witch is a very good friend when she wields a sceptre instead of a broomstick.

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Definitions (35)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (9)

  1. noun A woman claiming or popularly believed to possess magical powers and practice sorcery.
  2. noun A believer or follower of Wicca; a Wiccan.
  3. noun A hag.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (18)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (3)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (5)

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Examples (50)

  • Tuly insisted on calling the witch "the wisewoman," but a witch was a witch and her daughter was no fit companion for Diamond. —  F ;SF; - vol 097 issue 04-05 - October-November 1999
  • To provide succor to a witch is a sign that you've been bewitched. —  BEWITCHING FAMILIAR
  • Fornicating with a witch is a sure way to lose one's soul. —  BEWITCHING FAMILIAR
  • "I could not let you complete your quest," Ceridwen explained, and it seemed to Gary that the witch was almost apologizing. —  The Woods Out Back
  • He realized a moment later, though, that the witch was as surprised to see him as he was to see her. —  The Woods Out Back
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Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

wizard ·  demon ·  vampire ·  dragon ·  devil ·  ghost ·  warrior ·  priest ·  god ·  creature ·  pirate ·  elf

Used in the same contextWord Family

witch:   witches
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 (4)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English wicche, from Old English wicce, witch, and wicca, wizard, sorcerer; see weg- in Indo-European roots.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. from Middle English witche, wicche, wichche, wiche, a witch (man or woman), from Anglo-Saxon wicca, masculine, wicce, feminine (plural wiccan in both genders), a sorcerer or sorceress, a wizard or witch, = Fries, wikke = Low German wikke, a witch; cf. Icel: vitki, masculine, a witch, wizard, prob. after Anglo-Saxon; prob. a reduction, with shortened vowel and assimilation of consonants (tg later tk later kk, in Anglo-Saxon written cc), of Anglo-Saxon wītga, a syncopated form of wītiga, witega, a seer, prophet, soothsayer, magician (cf. deóful-wītga, ‘devil prophet,’ wizard) (= Old High German wīzago, wīzzago, a prophet, soothsayer), from wītig, seeing, a form parallel to witig (with short vowel), knowing, witan, know, *wītan, see: see wit, and cf. witty. The notion that witch is a feminine form is usually accompanied by the notion that the corresponding masculine is wizard (the two words forming one of the pairs of masculine and feminine correlatives given in the grammars); but witch is historically masculine as well as feminine (being indeed orig., in the Anglo-Saxon form witga, only masculine), and wizard has no immediate relation to witch. Cf. wiseacre, ult. from Old High German wīzago, and so a doublet of witch. Hence ult. (from Anglo-Saxon wicca) Middle English wikke, wicke, evil, wicked, and wikked, wicked, wicked: see wick and wicked. The change of form (Anglo-Saxon wicca from wītga) is paralleled by a similar change in orchard (Anglo-Saxon orceard from orcgeard from ortgeard), and the development of sense (‘wicked,’ ‘witched’) is in keeping with the history of other words which have become ultimately associated with popular superstitions—superstition, whether religious or etymological, tending to pervert or distort the forms and meanings of words.
  2. from Middle English witchen, wicchen, wichen, from Anglo-Saxon wiccian, bewitch; cf. D. Low German wikken = Icelandic vitka, soothsay, divine; from the noun. Cf. bewitch.
  3. Also, in comp., wich, wych, weech; from Middle English wiche, from Anglo-Saxon wice, the sorb or service-tree; apparently applied to several trees with pendulous branches, from wīcan (past participle wicen), bend, yield: see weak. Hence witchen, and in comp. witch-elm, witch-hazel, q. v.
 

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/wɪtʃ/
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