witch \witch\, n. oe. wicche, as. wicce, fem., wicca, masc.;
   perhaps the same word as as. wimactiga, wimactga, 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
see also:
wiseacre versiera wicca witch balls tumbleweed witches' besoms 
witches' butter nostoc commune exidia glandulosa nostoc witch grass 
panicum capillare witch meal vegetable