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Examples
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Best of all, he banished "eye-bite," which was the name the people gave to witchcraft.
Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks William Elliot Griffis 1885
Gammerstang commented on the word eye-bite
(verb/noun) - (1) To bewitch by a certain evil influence of the eye. --Nathan Bailey's Universal Etymological English Dictionary, 1749 (2) Reginald Scot, in his Discovery of Witchcraft 1584 telleth us that our English people in Ireland were much given to this idolatry in Queen Elizabeth's time insomuch that, there being a disease amongst their cattle that grew blind, they did commonly execute people for it, calling them eye-biting witches. --Thomas Ady's Candle in the Dark; or, A Treatise Concerning the Nature of Witches and Witchcraft, 1656
(verb) - To bewitch an animal with the evil eye. Northern England. --James Halliwell's Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, 1855
February 11, 2018