spell
IPA: spˈɛɫ
noun
- Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
- A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
- (obsolete) Speech, discourse.
- A shift (of work); (rare) a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.
- (informal) A definite period (of work or other activity).
- (colloquial) An indefinite period of time (usually with a qualifier); by extension, a relatively short distance.
- A period of rest; time off.
- (colloquial, US) A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.
- (cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.
- (dialectal) A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.
- The wooden bat in the game of trap ball, or knurr and spell.
- A surname.
verb
- To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
- (intransitive, transitive, sometimes with “out”) To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word.
- (transitive, obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
- (transitive) Of letters: to compose (a word).
- (transitive, figuratively, with “out”) To clarify; to explain in detail.
- (transitive) To indicate that (some event) will occur; typically followed by a single-word noun.
- To constitute; to measure.
- (obsolete) To speak, to declaim.
- (obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
- (transitive) To work in place of (someone).
- (transitive) To rest (someone or something), to give someone or something a rest or break.
- (intransitive, colloquial) To rest from work for a time.
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Examples of "spell" in Sentences
- God, please break the Palin spell off CNN, IJN ......
- Who can spell a French word, but not an easy English word?
- Beware of relying solely on the built in spell-checkers of modern word processing software.
- Arcane Eye (Encounter: Cast a ranged implement spell from the eye, buff perception and insight).
- I've been away from the Blogosphere for a spell myself -- well, for a short time, not actually a *spell*, if we're talking about Lovecraft.
- One time they had what they call a spell, on the plantation, at which all the servants were compelled to turn out and assist in hoing corn.
- Â Zee tries to teleport him away, but her teleportation spell is interrupted by a DIFFERENT teleport spell and the monstrous alien is gone.
- One time they had what they call a spell, on the plantation, at which all the servants were compelled to turn out, and assist in hoeing corn.
- I did not know that upon the hot stream beside which you found me, a certain woman, by no means so powerful as myself, not being immortal, had cast what you call a spell -- which is merely the setting in motion of a force as natural as any other, but operating primarily in a region beyond the ken of the mortal who makes use of the force.
- After the evaporation of the steaming vapour of spring has gone forward, and the farmer has operated in the way of ploughing and sowing, on whatever ready-prepared land he may have for the purpose, the first dry "spell" is looked forward to most anxiously to burn off the land which has been chopped during the winter – it is bad policy, however, to depend for the whole crop on this
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