WITCHCRAFT
\wˈɪt͡ʃkɹaft], \wˈɪtʃkɹaft], \w_ˈɪ_tʃ_k_ɹ_a_f_t]\
Definitions of WITCHCRAFT
- 2010 - New Age Dictionary Database
- 1913 - Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
- 2010 - Medical Dictionary Database
- 1919 - The Winston Simplified Dictionary
- 1899 - The american dictionary of the english language.
- 1894 - The Clarendon dictionary
- 1871 - The Cabinet Dictionary of the English Language
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By Oddity Software
By Noah Webster.
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An act of employing sorcery (the use of power gained from the assistance or control of spirits), especially with malevolent intent, and the exercise of supernatural powers and alleged intercourse with the devil or a familiar. (From Webster, 3d ed)
By DataStellar Co., Ltd
By William Dodge Lewis, Edgar Arthur Singer
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The practices of witches: sorcery. a supernatural power which persons were formerly supposed to obtain by entering into compact with the devil. Indeed it was fully believed that they gave themselves up to him, body and soul, while he engaged that they should want for nothing, and be able to assume whatever shape they pleased, to visit and torment their enemies, and accomplish their infernal purposes. As soon as the bargain was concluded, the devil was said to deliver to the witch an imp or familiar spirit, to be ready at call, and to do whatever it was directed. By the aid of this imp and the devil together, the witch, who was almost always an old woman, was enabled to transport herself through the air on a broomstick, and to transform herself into various shapes, particularly those of cats and hares; to inflict diseases on whomsoever she pleased, and to punish her enemies in variety of ways. The belief in witchcraft is very ancient. It was a common belief in Europe till the sixteenth century, and maintained its ground with tolerable firmness till the middle of the seventeenth century; indeed it is not altogether extinct even at the present day. Numbers of reputed witches were condemned to be burned, so that in England alone it is computed that no fewer than 30,000 of them suffered at the stake. The word also means power more than natural: enchantment: irresistible influence: fascination.
By Daniel Lyons
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