- Exidia glandulosa
- Witch Witch, n. [OE. wicche, AS. wicce, fem., wicca, masc.;
perhaps the same word as AS. w[=i]tiga, w[=i]tga, a
soothsayer (cf. {Wiseacre}); cf. Fries. wikke, a witch, LG.
wikken to predict, Icel. vitki a wizard, vitka to bewitch.]
[1913 Webster]
1. One who practices the black art, or magic; one regarded as
possessing supernatural or magical power by compact with
an evil spirit, esp. with the Devil; a sorcerer or
sorceress; -- now applied chiefly or only to women, but
formerly used of men as well.
[1913 Webster]
There was a man in that city whose name was Simon, a witch. --Wyclif (Acts viii. 9). [1913 Webster]
He can not abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
2. An ugly old woman; a hag. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
3. One who exercises more than common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person; also, one given to mischief; -- said especially of a woman or child. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]
4. (Geom.) A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera. [1913 Webster]
5. (Zo["o]l.) The stormy petrel. [1913 Webster]
6. A Wiccan; an adherent or practitioner of {Wicca}, a religion which in different forms may be paganistic and nature-oriented, or ditheistic. The term witch applies to both male and female adherents in this sense. [PJC]
{Witch balls}, a name applied to the interwoven rolling masses of the stems of herbs, which are driven by the winds over the steppes of Tartary. Cf. {Tumbleweed}. --Maunder (Treas. of Bot.)
{Witches' besoms} (Bot.), tufted and distorted branches of the silver fir, caused by the attack of some fungus. --Maunder (Treas. of Bot.)
{Witches' butter} (Bot.), a name of several gelatinous cryptogamous plants, as {Nostoc commune}, and {Exidia glandulosa}. See {Nostoc}.
{Witch grass} (Bot.), a kind of grass ({Panicum capillare}) with minute spikelets on long, slender pedicels forming a light, open panicle.
{Witch meal} (Bot.), vegetable sulphur. See under {Vegetable}. [1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English. 2000.