Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The act of bewitching.
  • noun The power to bewitch.
  • noun The state of being bewitched.
  • noun A bewitching spell.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun Fascination; power of charming; the effects of witchcraft.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun The act of bewitching, or the state of being bewitched.
  • noun The power of bewitching or charming.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The characteristic of being bewitched.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a magical spell

Etymologies

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Examples

  • The love that drives him increasingly looks like something baser and less flattering--a kind of bewitchment he seems helpless against, though it comes from within.

    Archive 2009-08-16 2009

  • Many Malawians hold similar beliefs about the possibility of bewitchment, and we had heard numerous disturbing tales involving children and witchcraft from other clients in the clinic.

    Chi Mgbako: Aiding Children Accused of Witchcraft Chi Mgbako 2011

  • Magic spells, poisons, potions and enchantments may be frequent plot devices at the ballet, but the art form itself is under a bewitchment of its own making.

    Vitro Nasu » 2009 » May 2009

  • Many Malawians hold similar beliefs about the possibility of bewitchment, and we had heard numerous disturbing tales involving children and witchcraft from other clients in the clinic.

    Chi Mgbako: Aiding Children Accused of Witchcraft Chi Mgbako 2011

  • Gillian Anderson's version of the duchess the former Wallis Warfield Simpson, begins as a bewitchment and ends like the strike of a rattlesnake.

    Where the Time Goes Nancy deWolf Smith 2011

  • Magic spells, poisons, potions and enchantments may be frequent plot devices at the ballet, but the art form itself is under a bewitchment of its own making.

    Beaming Balanchine 2009

  • What the local people saw as bewitchment he saw as mental stress.

    Spellbound Karen Palmer 2010

  • What the local people saw as bewitchment he saw as mental stress.

    Spellbound Karen Palmer 2010

  • Its prevalence is not the result of a recent word transfer or innovation, but reflects the preservation of an ancient verb root of persistent meaning that dates back to the proto-Bantu period of the early third millennium BCE. 56 In other words, the idea of bewitchment has retained its current meaning and linguistic form for at least 5,000 years.

    Societies, Religion, and History: Central East Tanzanians and the World They Created, c. 200 BCE to 1800 CE 2008

  • And yet in Julian Mitchell's exemplary adaptation it glides on to the stage scented with the peculiar tang of Ford's writing: a mixture of regret, bitterness, bewilderment and bewitchment.

    Earthquakes in London; The Good Soldier; FIB 2010

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