[f. as prec. + -ING2.]
1. That casts a spell; enchanting, bewitching.
In quot. 1387 wycchen is of uncertain origin.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), II. 187. In Affrica beeþ meyneys þat haueþ wycchen [v.r. wicching] tonges [linguas fascinantes].
c. 1600[?]. Distr. Emperor, II. i. in Bullen, Old Pl. (1884), III. 165. Nor her wytchinge eie … Can challendge any share in my disgrace.
1633. P. Fletcher, Pisc. Ecl., V. 5. Her witching eye the boy, and boat hath charm’d.
1747. W. Dunkin, in Francis, trans. Hor., Ep., II. ii. 317. Witching Imps of Hell.
2. transf. Of or belonging to witchcraft; concerned with the practice of witchcraft or sorcery.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., V. vii. 104. But they haue lesse reason that build vpon … the supernaturall frame of transubstantiation; as almost all our witching writers doo. Ibid., XII. vii. 228. They burst the snakes with witching words.
1713. Rowe, Jane Shore, IV. i. Those damnable Contrivers, Who shall with Potions, Charms, and witching Drugs, Practise against our Person and our Life.
b. spec. Of time: Belonging or appropriate to the deeds of witches and witchcraft, and hence to supposed supernatural occurrences.
In later use echoing Shaks.
1602. Shaks., Ham., III. ii. 406. ’Tis now the verie witching time of night, When Churchyards yawne, and Hell it selfe breaths out Contagion to this world.
1742. Blair, Grave, 55. Such Tales their Chear, at Wake or Gossiping, When it draws near to Witching Time of Night.
1835. Lytton, Rienzi, I. xii. It was now the witching hour consecrated to ghost and spirit. Ibid. (1849), K. Arthur, VI. lxvii. Just as the witching night begins to fall.
3. fig. ‘Bewitching,’ fascinating.
a. 1600[?]. in Lyly’s Wks. (1902), III. 497. Witching Tobacco, I will fiy to thee.
1607. Dekker, Whore of Babylon, G 2. On my modest cheekes, No witching smiles doe dwell.
1787. Burns, ‘A Prayer, in Prospect of Death,’ 11. List’ning to their witching voice Has often led me wrong.
1812. Byron, Ch. Har., I. lvii. Yet are Spain’s maids … form’d for all the witching arts of love.
1890. Spectator, 7 June, 799/2. The spell of the witching land and its people grows on us as on Essex.
b. advb. Bewitchingly.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 144. She only answer’d with a look, But it was ’witching sweet.
Hence Witchingly adv., bewitchingly.
1748. Thomson, Cast. Indol., I. vi. The soft delights, that witchingly Instil a wanton sweetness through the breast.
a. 1868. Lowell, Nomades, viii. So witchingly her finger-tips To Wisdom … She kisses.
1878. [G. L. M. Strauss], in Tinsley’s Mag., XXIII. 518. She was about twenty-four, with a witchingly sweet face.
