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water-witch

noun

Etymology

Grebes are so called due to their ability to evade hunters and predators by disappearing underwater. Storm petrels are so called due to the folk belief that their arrival foretells approaching storms. Both birds also sometimes walk on water.

Definitions

  1. A grebe

  2. The storm petrel.

    • Ten or fifteen dark little birds […] these are "Mother Carey's chickens," the "water-witches," Stormy Petrels, which are so familiar to the eye of the sailor, and the sight of which he dreads so much; […]
    • [see chapter title, viz.:] Song of the Water-Witch (The Stormy-Petrel)

  3. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically

    Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: a witch who lives in, controls, is able to dowse or find, or is otherwise connected with, water.

    • […] plays with the stormy petrel, / And answers the sea-gull's call. […] the water-witch, gray and ancient, / And hearing the tales she tells.
    • The water-witches of Meterik inhabit the islands. There are fifteen of them. They argue all the time over minutiae. They throw magic spells at each other for fun. Normally they show not too much interest in humans. That changed[…]
    • "... even if he wanted to, he couldn't hold that rod steady." I smiled , remembering the water witches of my youth. They were mystical, mysterious people. Only one of them hit good clean water every time and plenty of it, and […]

The neighborhood

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for water-witch. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA