witch

Meanings

Noun

• A person who practices witchcraft.
• An ugly or unpleasant woman.
• One who exercises more-than-common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person.
• One given to mischief, especially a woman or child.
• A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.
• The stormy petrel.
• Any of a number of flatfish:
• The Indomalayan butterfly Araotes lapithis (species), of the family Lycaenidae.
• A cone of paper which is placed in a vessel of lard or other fat and used as a taper.

Verb

• To practise witchcraft.
• To bewitch.
• To dowse for water.

Related

Similar words

• wizardess, sorceress
• wizard, sorcerer, warlock

Origin

• From Middle English wicche, from Old English wiċċe and wiċċa, deverbative from wiċċian, from Proto-Germanic *wikkōną (compare West Frisian wikje, wikke, German Low German wicken, Dutch wikken, wichelen), from Proto-Indo-European *wik-néh₂-, derivation of *weyk-; akin to Latin victima, Lithuanian viekas, Sanskrit विनक्ति.
• Compare wick.