versiera

1 definition found

versiera - Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 :

  Witch \Witch\, n. [OE. wicche, AS. wicce, fem., wicca, masc.;
     perhaps the same word as AS. w[imac]tiga, w[imac]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.
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              There was a man in that city whose name was Simon, a
              witch.                                --Wyclif (Acts
                                                    viii. 9).
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              He can not abide the old woman of Brentford; he
              swears she's a witch.                 --Shak.
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     2. An ugly old woman; a hag. --Shak.
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     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.]
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     4. (Geom.) A certain curve of the third order, described by
        Maria Agnesi under the name versiera.
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     5. (Zool.) The stormy petrel.
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     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.
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