Becharm
verb ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 To charm; fascinate; hold by a charm or spell. archaic, transitive
"Ahab knew that the whale had sounded; but intending to be near him at the next rising, he held on his way a little sideways from the vessel; the becharmed crew maintaining the profoundest silence, as the head-bent waves hammered and hammered against the opposing bow."
- 2 attract; cause to be enamored wordnet
- 3 control by magic spells, as by practicing witchcraft wordnet
Example
More examples"Ahab knew that the whale had sounded; but intending to be near him at the next rising, he held on his way a little sideways from the vessel; the becharmed crew maintaining the profoundest silence, as the head-bent waves hammered and hammered against the opposing bow."
Etymology
From Middle English becharmen, bicharmen, equivalent to be- (“on, upon”) + charm.
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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.