Witch-ridden

adj

adj ·Rare ·Advanced level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Thin and weak; (figuratively) thinly populated.

    "Even the chickens on their roosts were witch-ridden,[…]"

Example

More examples

"Even the chickens on their roosts were witch-ridden,[…]"

Etymology

Originally used to describe horses that remained thin and did not thrive despite feeding, from the notion in folklore that witches rode (and tired out) such horses at night.

Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.