Library / English Dictionary

BEWITCH

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something

Synonyms:

bewitch; enchant; glamour; hex; jinx; witch

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "bewitch" is one way to...):

becharm; charm (control by magic spells, as by practicing witchcraft)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "bewitch"):

voodoo (bewitch by or as if by a voodoo)

spell (place under a spell)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Derivation:

bewitchment (a magical spell)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Attract strongly, as if with a magnet

Example:

She magnetized the audience with her tricks

Synonyms:

bewitch; magnetise; magnetize; mesmerise; mesmerize; spellbind

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Hypernyms (to "bewitch" is one way to...):

charm; influence; tempt (induce into action by using one's charm)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sense 3

Meaning:

Attract; cause to be enamored

Example:

She captured all the men's hearts

Synonyms:

becharm; beguile; bewitch; captivate; capture; catch; charm; enamor; enamour; enchant; entrance; fascinate; trance

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Hypernyms (to "bewitch" is one way to...):

appeal; attract (be attractive to)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "bewitch"):

hold (hold the attention of)

work (gratify and charm, usually in order to influence)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Derivation:

bewitchery (magnetic personal charm)

Credits

 Context examples: 

She had a few tender reveries now and then, which he could sometimes take advantage of to look in her face without detection; and the result of these looks was, that though as bewitching as ever, her face was less blooming than it ought to be.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

“It was never bewitching,” she said, laughing.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

For a few moments her imagination and her heart were bewitched.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

I know that such a girl as Harriet is exactly what every man delights in—what at once bewitches his senses and satisfies his judgment.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

Artistic Neptune is in your sign, Pisces, and will add a bewitching note to any event you attend mid-month.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

They are bewitched, and are obliged to watch over a great treasure which is below in the tower, and they can have no rest until it is taken away, and I have likewise learnt, from their discourse, how that is to be done.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Oh, God!—holding out her hand to me, asking me for an explanation, with those bewitching eyes fixed in such speaking solicitude on my face!—and Sophia, jealous as the devil on the other hand, looking all that was—Well, it does not signify; it is over now.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)

When you came on me in Hay Lane last night, I thought unaccountably of fairy tales, and had half a mind to demand whether you had bewitched my horse: I am not sure yet.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

From the first casting of the parts to the epilogue it was all bewitching, and there were few who did not wish to have been a party concerned, or would have hesitated to try their skill.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

Elizabeth, having rather expected to affront him, was amazed at his gallantry; but there was a mixture of sweetness and archness in her manner which made it difficult for her to affront anybody; and Darcy had never been so bewitched by any woman as he was by her.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)