bewitch
Americanverb (used with object)
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bewitches,
present (3rd person singular)
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bewitched,
past participle, past
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bewitching
present participle
verb (used without object)
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bewitches,
present (3rd person singular)
-
bewitched,
past participle, past
-
bewitching
present participle
verb
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to attract and fascinate; enchant
-
to cast a spell over
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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bewitchernoun
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bewitcherynoun
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bewitchingnessnoun
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bewitchmentnoun
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bewitchingadjective
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bewitchinglyadverb
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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bewitchsimple
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bewitchessimple
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have bewitchedperfect
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has bewitchedperfect
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am bewitchingprogressive
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are bewitchingprogressive
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is bewitchingprogressive
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have been bewitchingperfect progressive
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has been bewitchingperfect progressive
Past
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bewitchedsimple
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had bewitchedperfect
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was bewitchingprogressive
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were bewitchingprogressive
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had been bewitchingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of bewitch
First recorded in 1175–1225, bewitch is from the Middle English word biwicchen; see be-, witch
Explanation
To bewitch is to cast a spell on someone with witchcraft or to capture their attention in another way. You might bewitch someone with your beauty or with your potion. The choice is yours. The word witch is a big clue to what bewitching means. In a Halloween story, if a witch casts a spell over someone to control them, that's an example of bewitching. Bewitching happens in the real world when something captures your attention or attracts you. A fascinating storyteller bewitches you. When people fall in love, they bewitch one another.
Vocabulary lists containing bewitch
Born a Crime
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"The Flight of Icarus" by Sally Benson
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Merci Suárez Changes Gears
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Unlike Godard, he doesn’t try to bewitch you with theory.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 30, 2025
The prosecution alleged that Phiri and Candunde were hired by a fugitive former MP to bewitch Hichilema.
From BBC ● Sep. 15, 2025
While “I Put a Spell on You” is a fan-favorite, the super-creepy “Come Little Children,” sung by Parker’s Sarah to bewitch children for eating, is also a memorable performance.
From Washington Post ● Sep. 30, 2022
Self-possessed and unflappable, he radiates serenity even as he brutally trounces his competition, a kind of soothing confidence that seems to bewitch even Trebek.
From Slate ● May 29, 2019
“Have they found a new way to bewitch us?”
From "Ella Enchanted" by Gail Carson Levine
He has constructed a glossy fever dream that bewitches as much as it befuddles.
From Salon ● May 20, 2022
An Ozark faith healer bewitches two construction engineers.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2020
Its heroine Seren must battle a vengeful supernatural being that bewitches her adoptive aristocratic Welsh family.
From The Guardian ● Nov. 9, 2019
The garden — also rich in watery pools and jumbo succulents in bright pots — still bewitches with its far-from-the-dusty-medina vibe.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 1, 2019
“Nick Huntsman swears that he bewitches them,” said Charles, “for they always lose the scent when he is in the field, but I believe ’tis the wry looks of him that throw them all out.”
From A Reputed Changeling Or Three Seventh Years Two Centuries Ago by Charlotte Mary Yonge
Studebaker halted Avanti production after only a year; but the design lived on until 2006, with its rights passing through a succession of wildcat coachbuilders too bewitched to help themselves.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 25, 2025
He said it was she who first bewitched him when he worked as a page in the stacks of the Johns Hopkins University library in Baltimore as an undergraduate.
From New York Times ● Apr. 2, 2024
He owns more than a thousand of them - although he only plays a select few on stage - and, even as he approaches 80, the star is still bewitched by the instrument.
From BBC ● Oct. 9, 2023
It’s wired somewhere deep into our caveman brain — we’re bewitched by calamity.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2023
He told Dumbledore everything except that Mr. Weasley owned the bewitched car, making it sound as though he and Ron had happened to find a flying car parked outside the station.
From "Harry Potter And The Chamber Of Secrets" by J. K. Rowling
Outflanked by cruel and fickle gods at every turn, legendary Greek hero Odysseus outsmarted a one-eyed giant, suffered through the bewitching Sirens’ song and braved the Underworld’s dead denizens.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 8, 2026
In another context, the size, style and theme of Ms. Kiwanga’s work would make it bewitching.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 1, 2026
It was expensive, but worth every penny — a beautiful, abstract rendering of the film’s themes, displayed in a bewitching graphic style I couldn’t get out of my mind after coveting the poster online.
From Salon ● Apr. 17, 2026
Of the ones that have survived, Isidora is the most bewitching, almost perfectly preserved and flawlessly executed.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Feb. 20, 2026
It had never been likely that the locket was here at the Ministry, and there was no hope of bewitching its whereabouts out of Umbridge while she was sitting in a crowded court.
From "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
