BEWITCH

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does bewitch mean? 

• BEWITCH (verb)
  The verb BEWITCH has 3 senses:

1. attract; cause to be enamored

2. attract strongly, as if with a magnet

3. cast a spell over someone or something; put a hex on someone or something

  Familiarity information: BEWITCH used as a verb is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• BEWITCH (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they bewitch    ... he / she / it bewitches   
Past simple: bewitched   
Past participle: bewitched   
-ing form: bewitching   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Attract; cause to be enamored

Classified under:

Verbs of feeling

Synonyms:

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

Context example:

She captured all the men's hearts

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Attract strongly, as if with a magnet

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bewitch; magnetise; magnetize; mesmerise; mesmerize; spellbind

Context example:

She magnetized the audience with her tricks

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:

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

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

bewitch; enchant; glamour; hex; jinx; witch

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)

 Context examples 

“It never could have been bewitching, Davy. Now I know it wasn't!”

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Mr. Rochester was about forty, and this governess not twenty; and you see, when gentlemen of his age fall in love with girls, they are often like as if they were bewitched.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She was positively bewitching, and, withal, sweetly spirituelle, if not saintly.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Then the parson himself was frightened; and thinking the cow was surely bewitched, told his man to kill her on the spot.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

Neptune is now in your seventh house of marriage and committed love, so you could receive a bewitching proposal for marriage this month (or you may propose), or you may marry.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

My prince must be tall, and slender, and dark—a graceful, bewitching prince.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Such confidence, powerful in its own warmth, and bewitching in the wit which often expressed it, must have been enough for Anne; but Lady Russell saw it very differently.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

You will not thank me for detaining you from the bewitching converse of that young lady, whose bright eyes are also upbraiding me.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

For a little while Emma persevered in her silence; but beginning to apprehend the bewitching flattery of that letter might be too powerful, she thought it best to say, (...)

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

And after all, Marianne, after all that is bewitching in the idea of a single and constant attachment, and all that can be said of one's happiness depending entirely on any particular person, it is not meant—it is not fit—it is not possible that it should be so.

(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)