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
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bewitching
present participle
verb
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to attract and fascinate; enchant
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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
Washington, having spurned a crown himself, recognized the siren song that could bewitch even ostensibly democratic leaders, particularly in polities where checks on power are easily subverted.
From Slate ● Feb. 17, 2025
Well, when there are people available to bewitch.
From Washington Post ● Feb. 5, 2022
The Creevey brothers had managed to get hold of a stack of Support Cedric Diggory! badges and were trying to bewitch them to make them say Support Harry Potter! instead.
From "Harry Potter And The Goblet Of Fire" by J. K. Rowling
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
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
But Ms. Schulman does supply a magical, lighter-than-air young girl who bewitches Jake in the Daisy Buchanan manner, even if her name is Audrey and her heritage is Chinese.
From New York Times ● Jul. 24, 2011
It will be noticed that Vandaih drinks the pinole, which bewitches him, five times instead of the usual four.
From Aw-Aw-Tam Indian Nights Being the myths and legends of the Pimas of Arizona by J. William Lloyd
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
Andrea Carnevale, the former Italy striker who is now a scout for Udinese, was said to have been bewitched by the Veronese kid.
From BBC ● Dec. 28, 2023
It’s wired somewhere deep into our caveman brain — we’re bewitched by calamity.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 30, 2023
He was bewitched by its beauty, but he did as she said and put it straight back into the box, wrapped it up, and thrust it into the bottom of the rucksack.
From "The Book of Dust: La Belle Sauvage" by Philip Pullman
A bewitching survey looks at the unexpected, centuries-old genesis of the divination cards, and the ways they endured and changed in the modern era.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 28, 2026
When Conlon conducts the final performance of the company’s bewitching production of Mozart’s “The Magic Flute” Sunday afternoon that will also mark his last appearance as L.A.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 18, 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
Gloriously unpredictable and, at times, impossible to read, they are wildly entertaining - bewildering, bewitching, brilliant.
From BBC ● Feb. 14, 2026
In the candlelight she looked bewitching, and Reverend Bulkeley smiled whenever he looked at her.
From "The Witch of Blackbird Pond" by Elizabeth George Speare
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.
