spell

noun

1. 1

   Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.

   He cast a spell to cure warts.

2. 2

   A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.

   under a spell

   Skies are not so black / Mary took me back / Mary has broken your spell

   I believe your love has placed its spell on me

3. 3

   obsoleteSpeech, discourse.

verb

1. 1

   To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.

   Vnchaine your spirits now with spelling Charmes,

   […] although the Kings Jealousie was thus particular to her, his Affection was as general to others […] Above all, for a time he was much speld with Elianor Talbot […]

   1697, John Dryden (translator), Georgics, Book 3 in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 109, lines 444-446, 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;

   But when, O Wells! thy roses came to me My sense with their deliciousness was spell’d:

2. 2

   obsoleteTo hanker or yearn (for something).

   "I have not got a coal ticket with me." "I am sorry you should think I was 'spelling' for a coal ticket," he interrupted; "if such an idea had occurred to me, I should have asked for it straightforwardly."

verb

1. 1

   To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word.

   I find it difficult to spell because I'm dyslexic.

2. 2

   obsoleteTo read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.

   "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.

3. 3

   Of letters: to compose (a word).

   The letters “a”, “n” and “d” spell “and”.

   In Esperanto each letter has only one sound, and each sound is represented in only one way. The words are pronounced exactly as spelt, every letter being sounded.

   Welcome to the League Aiming to Menace and Overthrow Spies! You realize that spells “LAMOS”?

4. 4

   figurativeTo clarify; to explain in detail.

   Please spell it out for me.

   When we get elected, for instance, we get one of these, and we are pretty much told what is in it, and it is our responsibility to read it and understand it, and if we do not, the Ethics Committee, we can call them any time of day and ask them to spell it out for us[…]

5. 5

   To indicate that (some event) will occur; typically followed by a single-word noun.

   This spells trouble.

6. 6

   To constitute; to measure.

   the Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effect

7. 7

   obsoleteTo speak, to declaim.

   O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell?

8. 8

   obsoleteTo tell; to relate; to teach.

   1770, Thomas Warton, “Ode on the Approach of Summer” in A Collection of Poems in Four Volumes, London: G. Pearch, Volume 1, p. 278, As thro’ the caverns dim I wind, Might I that legend find, By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes,

9. 9

   To notate or indicate a pitch, interval, or chord using a particular enharmonic spelling.

   The note D♭ is spelled differently from C♯, even though they sound equivalent.

   The way you spell a chord reflects its harmonic function.

   A dominant seventh chord is spelled with a diminished seventh interval, not a major sixth.

verb

1. 1

   To work in place of (someone).

   to spell the helmsman

2. 2

   To rest (someone or something), to give someone or something a rest or break.

   They spelled the horses and rested in the shade of some trees near a brook.

3. 3

   To rest from work for a time.

noun

1. 1

   A shift (of work); (rare) a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.

2. 2

   informalA definite period (of work or other activity).

   A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.

   I had a job in the great North Woods / Workin' as a cook for a spell / But I never did like it all that much / And one day the ax just fell

   Despite his ill-fated spell at Anfield, he received a warm reception from the same Liverpool fans he struggled to win over before being sacked midway through last season.

3. 3

   An indefinite period of time (usually with a qualifier); by extension, a relatively short distance.

   Even Mrs. Harker seems to lose sight of her trouble for whole spells. [...] When he had spoken, Mina's long spell of silence made me look at her.

   So after a short spell in the brass foundry the wisest course was to follow with a similar period in the steel foundry, where much important work was done, including the manufacture of centres for wheels.

   [...] Class 37s became synonymous with the depot, and over the years more than a third of the class had a spell allocated to the shed.

4. 4

   A period of rest; time off.

5. 5

   A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.

6. 6

   An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.

noun

1. 1

   A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.

   To swadle a bowe much about wyth bandes, verye seldome dothe anye good, excepte it be to kepe downe a spel in the backe.

2. 2

   The wooden bat in the game of trap ball, or knurr and spell.

Forms

plural

spells

past tense

spelled, spelt

past participle

spelled, spelt

present participle

spelling

third person singular

spells