"witch's teat" meaning in English

See witch's teat in All languages combined, or Wiktionary

Noun

Forms: witch's teats [plural]
Head templates: {{en-noun}} witch's teat (plural witch's teats)
  1. A raised bump or wart on a person's body, formerly believed in some English-speaking cultures to indicate that the person was a witch and used the wart to provide blood to familiars.
    Sense id: en-witch's_teat-en-noun-7ePGilCT Categories (other): English entries with incorrect language header, Pages with 1 entry, Pages with entries

Inflected forms

{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "witch's teats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "witch's teat (plural witch's teats)",
      "name": "en-noun"
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  "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"
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          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with 1 entry",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        },
        {
          "kind": "other",
          "name": "Pages with entries",
          "parents": [],
          "source": "w"
        }
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Phillip Margulies, Maxine Rosaler, The Devil on Trial: Witches, Anarchists, Atheists, Communists, and Terrorists in America's Courtrooms, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 19:",
          "text": "... a “witch's teat.” A witch's teat was thought to serve the same function as the nipple of a nursing mother, but instead of providing milk to babies, it supplied blood to the witch's evil helpers, or familiars. A committee of[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 April 15, Christine L. Krueger, Reading for the Law: British Literary History and Gender Advocacy, University of Virginia Press, →ISBN, page 68:",
          "text": "... a witch's teat had no counterpart in Continental witchcraft theory. Women, credited because of their “good characters” rather than any professional expertise (though in the 1640s Matthew Hopkins would come to favor midwives), were[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 May 9, Frances Timbers, A History of Magic and Witchcraft: Sabbats, Satan & Superstitions in the West, Pen and Sword, →ISBN:",
          "text": "... temporary confinement. Before her trial, she would be examined under oath by the JP and perhaps examined for a witch's teat by several respectable women. If the justice of the peace felt there was sufficient evidence against her, she ...",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A raised bump or wart on a person's body, formerly believed in some English-speaking cultures to indicate that the person was a witch and used the wart to provide blood to familiars."
      ],
      "id": "en-witch's_teat-en-noun-7ePGilCT",
      "links": [
        [
          "witch",
          "witch"
        ],
        [
          "blood",
          "blood"
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        [
          "familiar",
          "familiar"
        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "witch's teat"
}
{
  "forms": [
    {
      "form": "witch's teats",
      "tags": [
        "plural"
      ]
    }
  ],
  "head_templates": [
    {
      "args": {},
      "expansion": "witch's teat (plural witch's teats)",
      "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",
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        "Pages with entries"
      ],
      "examples": [
        {
          "ref": "2008, Phillip Margulies, Maxine Rosaler, The Devil on Trial: Witches, Anarchists, Atheists, Communists, and Terrorists in America's Courtrooms, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, →ISBN, page 19:",
          "text": "... a “witch's teat.” A witch's teat was thought to serve the same function as the nipple of a nursing mother, but instead of providing milk to babies, it supplied blood to the witch's evil helpers, or familiars. A committee of[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2010 April 15, Christine L. Krueger, Reading for the Law: British Literary History and Gender Advocacy, University of Virginia Press, →ISBN, page 68:",
          "text": "... a witch's teat had no counterpart in Continental witchcraft theory. Women, credited because of their “good characters” rather than any professional expertise (though in the 1640s Matthew Hopkins would come to favor midwives), were[…]",
          "type": "quote"
        },
        {
          "ref": "2019 May 9, Frances Timbers, A History of Magic and Witchcraft: Sabbats, Satan & Superstitions in the West, Pen and Sword, →ISBN:",
          "text": "... temporary confinement. Before her trial, she would be examined under oath by the JP and perhaps examined for a witch's teat by several respectable women. If the justice of the peace felt there was sufficient evidence against her, she ...",
          "type": "quote"
        }
      ],
      "glosses": [
        "A raised bump or wart on a person's body, formerly believed in some English-speaking cultures to indicate that the person was a witch and used the wart to provide blood to familiars."
      ],
      "links": [
        [
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        ],
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        ]
      ]
    }
  ],
  "word": "witch's teat"
}

Download raw JSONL data for witch's teat 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.

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