"witch window" meaning in English

See witch window in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: witch windows [plural]
Etymology: From the (probably unserious) suggestion that witches could not fly through them. Head templates: {{en-noun}} witch window (plural witch windows)
  1. A window placed diagonally, with its long edge parallel to the roof, in the gable-end wall of a house (chiefly in Vermont in the United States), where a window oriented vertically or horizontally would not fit.
    Sense id: en-witch_window-en-noun-oJHxuN8Q Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "etymology_text": "From the (probably unserious) suggestion that witches could not fly through them.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "witch windows",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "witch window (plural witch windows)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "English entries with incorrect language header",
          "parents": [
            "Entries with incorrect language header",
            "Entry maintenance"
          ],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 April 24, Peggy Chambers, Witches' Cliff, The Wild Rose Press Inc, →ISBN:",
          "text": "At the end of the room a witch window hung at an angle in the wall. She smiled. “Witch window. How quaint.” “Vermont is famous for them.[…]\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 September 15, S. A. Hunt, The Hellion, Macmillan + ORM, →ISBN:",
          "text": "\"[…] you've also got maybe eight to ten window,s and that's not counting the second floor and the windows in the attic—\" / \"Witch windows.\" / \"What?\" blurted Kenway. \"Seriously? Why do they call 'em witch windows?\" / \"They're not witch windows,\" said Gendreau. \"Witch windows are sashed windows half-rotated to one side. They were designed crooked to confuse witches back in the colonial days, to keep them from getting [inside].\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 June 13, Jenay Zapparelli, The Book of Beautiful Feelings: Thee Quintessential Guide to Deliberate Creation, BookonFire Press, →ISBN, page 86:",
          "text": "You might see the oddity of a “witch window” sideways by the peak of the pointy roof. The porch swing moves.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A window placed diagonally, with its long edge parallel to the roof, in the gable-end wall of a house (chiefly in Vermont in the United States), where a window oriented vertically or horizontally would not fit."
      ],
      "id": "en-witch_window-en-noun-oJHxuN8Q",
      "links": [
        [
          "window",
          "window"
        ],
        [
          "Vermont",
          "Vermont"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "witch window"
}
{
  "etymology_text": "From the (probably unserious) suggestion that witches could not fly through them.",
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "witch windows",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "witch window (plural witch windows)",
      "name": "en-noun"
    }
  ],
  "lang": "English",
  "lang_code": "en",
  "pos": "noun",
  "senses": [
    {
      "categories": [
        "English countable nouns",
        "English entries with incorrect language header",
        "English lemmas",
        "English multiword terms",
        "English nouns",
        "English terms with quotations",
        "Pages with 1 entry",
        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2019 April 24, Peggy Chambers, Witches' Cliff, The Wild Rose Press Inc, →ISBN:",
          "text": "At the end of the room a witch window hung at an angle in the wall. She smiled. “Witch window. How quaint.” “Vermont is famous for them.[…]\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2020 September 15, S. A. Hunt, The Hellion, Macmillan + ORM, →ISBN:",
          "text": "\"[…] you've also got maybe eight to ten window,s and that's not counting the second floor and the windows in the attic—\" / \"Witch windows.\" / \"What?\" blurted Kenway. \"Seriously? Why do they call 'em witch windows?\" / \"They're not witch windows,\" said Gendreau. \"Witch windows are sashed windows half-rotated to one side. They were designed crooked to confuse witches back in the colonial days, to keep them from getting [inside].\"",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2021 June 13, Jenay Zapparelli, The Book of Beautiful Feelings: Thee Quintessential Guide to Deliberate Creation, BookonFire Press, →ISBN, page 86:",
          "text": "You might see the oddity of a “witch window” sideways by the peak of the pointy roof. The porch swing moves.",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A window placed diagonally, with its long edge parallel to the roof, in the gable-end wall of a house (chiefly in Vermont in the United States), where a window oriented vertically or horizontally would not fit."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
          "window",
          "window"
        ],
        [
          "Vermont",
          "Vermont"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "witch window"
}

Download raw JSONL data for witch window meaning in English (2.0kB)


This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2024-12-15 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2024-12-04 using wiktextract (8a39820 and 4401a4c). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.

If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.