[f. SPELL sb.1 3.]
1. trans. To charm, fascinate, bewitch, bind by (or as by) a spell; to act as a spell upon.
a. 1623. Buck, Rich. III. (1646), 116. For a time he was much speld with Elianor Talbot.
1682. Dryden & Lee, Dk. Guise, IV. He durst not touch me; But aw’d and craven’d as he had been spell’d [etc.].
1793. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, V. IX. 397. Susanna’s temporary widowhood … has spelled me with a spell I know not how to break.
1816. Keats, To a Friend who sent me some Roses, 12. But when … thy roses came to me My sense with their deliciousness was spell’d.
1876. D. Stevenson, in Good Words, 687/1. We stayed our walk—spelled to the spot—to watch The sunset glorifying earth and sky.
b. To protect (one) from, to drive away, by means of a spell or charm.
1691. Dryden, K. Arthur, I. ii. 6. Thor, Freya, Woden, hear, and spell your Saxons, With Sacred Runick Rhimes, from Death in Battle.
1876. M. Davies, in Tinsley’s Mag., XVIII. 240. Thy soft voice spelled away All my dearth.
2. To invest with magical properties.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Georg., III. 445. This, gather’d in the Planetary Hour, With noxious Weeds, and spell’d with Words of Pow’r, Dire Stepdames in the Magick Bowl infuse.
Hence Spelled, Spelling ppl. adjs.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., V. iii. 31. Vnchaine your spirits now with spelling Charmes.
1838. S. Bellamy, Betrayal, 22. To such end his spell’d appearance wrought.
