Search the Dictionary

fesses to cure sickness, drive away evil spirits, and regulate the weather by the arts of magic. -- Medicine seal, a small gem or paste engraved with reversed characters, to serve as a seal. Such seals were used by Roman physicians to stamp the names of their medicines.

A modification of the magic lantern, used esp. for throwing a magnified image of an opaque object on a screen, solar or artificial light being used.

The art of increasing gold or silver by magic, -- attributed formerly to the alchemists. [Obs.] Chaucer. Multiplication table, a table giving the product of a set of numbers multiplied in some regular way; commonly, a table giving the products of the first ten or twelve numbers multiplied successively by 1, 2, 3, etc.,…

A gummy liquor that exudes from embalmed flesh when heated; -- formerly supposed to have magical and medicinal properties. [Obs.] Shak. Sir T. Herbert.

A more or less musical sound made by many of the lower animals. See Stridulation. Magic music, a game in which a person is guided in finding a hidden article, or in doing a specific art required, by music which is made more loud or rapid as he approaches success, and slower as he recedes. Tennyson. -- Music box. See M…

future events by means of a pretended communication with the dead; the black art; hence, magic in general; conjuration; enchantment. See Black art. This palace standeth in the air, By necromancy placèd there. Drayton.

the supposed action or influence of occult qualities, or supernatural powers, as alchemy, magic, necromancy, and astrology.

Serpent worship or the use of serpents as magical agencies.

The digestive organs. Is there some magic in the place, Or do my peptics differ Tennyson.

An optical effect produced by a magic lantern. The figures are painted in transparent colors, and all the rest of the glass is opaque black. The screen is between the spectators and the instrument, and the figures are often made to appear as in motion, or to merge into one another.

rank or position; condition; also, official station; occupation; calling. "The enervating magic of place." Hawthorne. Men in great place are thrice servants. Bacon. I know my place as I would they should do theirs. Shak.

ing runes, formerly thought to have been used by the heathen tribes of Northern Europe in magical ceremonies.

A kind of magic lantorn.

forded by a curtain, sheet, wall, etc., upon which an image, as a picture, is thrown by a magic lantern, solar microscope, etc.

vate, flattish seeds of these plants, sometimes used as food. See Benne. Open Sesame, the magical command which opened the door of the robber's den in the Arabian Nights' tale of "The Forty Thieves;" hence, a magical password. -- Sesame grass. (Bot.) Same as Gama grass.

plate or slip of glass on which is a picture or delineation to be exhibited by means of a magic lantern, stereopticon, or the like; a plate on which is an object to be examined with a microscope.

Of or pertaining to sleep or dreams. The somnial magic superinducted on, without suspending, the active powers of the mind. Coleridge.

A conjurer; an enchanter; a magician. Bacon. Pharaoh also called the wise men and the sorcerers. Ex. vii. 11.

stance, or supposed assistance, of evil spirits, or the power of commanding evil spirits; magic; necromancy; witchcraft; enchantment. Adder's wisdom I have learned, To fence my ear against thy sorceries. Milton.

A stanza, verse, or phrase supposed to be endowed with magical power; an incantation; hence, any charm. Start not; her actions shall be holy as You hear my spell is lawful. Shak.