a. Now rare. [f. as prec.] = VENEFICAL a.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 266. That it was an old veneficious practice, and Juno is made in this posture to hinder the delivery of Alcmæna.
1650. Charleton, trans. Van Helmont’s Paradoxes, 53. In this place we have nothing to doe with Veneficious Witches, properly called Sorcerers.
1702. Sherburne, Seneca’s Trag., 207, note. The Bonds and Fetters of veneficious Incantations.
1904. Le Queux, Closed Book, xxxvi. The actual poison-ring of that veneficious bacchante, Lucrezia Borgia, which had caused the death of so many unsuspecting and innocent persons, from cavaliers in Ferrara to cardinals in Rome.
Hence Veneficiously adv. Now rare or Obs.
1646. Sir T. Browne, Pseud. Ep., 265. Lest witches should draw or pricke their names therein, and veneficiously mischiefe their persons.
