(a) A practitioner, male or female, of the occult arts, a sorcerer or sorceress, necromancer, diviner; also, a maker of magical potions or poisons; ~ of (the) ei, Margery Jordemain (or Jourdemaine, Jurdeman), accused and found guilty of using sorcery to seek the death of Henry VI and executed at Smithfield in 1441; ~ of fraunce, Joan of Arc; a spirit of a ~, a medium’s ability; (b) a practitioner of pagan rituals, sacrifices, etc., an idolator, infidel [sometimes difficult to distinguish from (a)]; ?a false prophet [quot. a1464]; a pagan deity, an oracle, or a monster; also, a representation of such [quot. a1460]; also, with diminished force, as a term of abuse, esp. for someone assumed to be in league with the devil or aided by supernatural powers; olde ~, an ugly old woman, a hag, crone; (c) an evil female spirit which oppresses men in their sleep or afflicts horses at night [cp. night-mare n.]; (d) in cpd.: ~ falsnesse, ?magically generated phenomena; (e) supernatural power;—prob. error for wicche-craft n.