n. [ OE. wicche, AS. wicce, fem., wicca, masc.; perhaps the same word as AS. wītiga, wītga, 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. (Zool.) 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 ]
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