1.
[syn: witchgrass, witch grass, old witchgrass, old witch grass, tumble grass, Panicum capillare]
The 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.
[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]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
Panicum capillare
n 1: North American grass with slender brushy panicles; often a
weed on cultivated land [syn: witchgrass, witch grass,
old witchgrass, old witch grass, tumble grass,
Panicum capillare]