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What is "spell"

Crossword clues for spell

spell
Longman Dictionary of Contemporary English
spell
I.verb
COLLOCATIONS FROM OTHER ENTRIES
a brief spell (=time)
▪ For a brief spell in early summer it is the most beautiful of all the trees.
a cold spell (=a period of cold weather, especially a short one)
▪ We’re currently going through a bit of a cold spell.
a grammatical/spelling/typing error
▪ You lose marks if your paper contains spelling errors.
a spell check (=a process in which a computer program tells you if you have spelt words wrong)
▪ Have you done a spell check on your essay?
a spelling mistake
▪ She spotted two spelling mistakes in the article.
a spelling/reading/listening test
▪ I didn’t do very well in the listening test.
cold spell
correct spelling (=the correct way of writing words)
▪ Copying does not teach correct spelling.
dizzy spells (=a short period when you feel dizzy)
▪ She started to suffer from dizzy spells.
magic spells
▪ a book of magic spells
mean/spell trouble (=mean there will be trouble)
▪ They are now much more competitive, which can only spell trouble for their rivals.
spell a word
▪ I always find that word hard to spell.
spell disaster (=cause something to end badly or fail)
▪ Bad luck and the recession spelt disaster for her business.
spell doom (=mean that something will not continue to exist)
▪ Many people predicted that Internet growth would spell doom for the traditional media.
spell ruin (=cause ruin for sb)
▪ Unwise investment can spell financial ruin.
spelling bee
sunny periods/spells/intervals (=periods when it is sunny)
▪ sunny periods/spells/intervals
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADVERB
correctly
▪ Make sure it exists and that its name is spelled correctly.
▪ Maybe the letter was not spelled correctly.
even
▪ Hells bells! they could not even spell teem!
▪ I can't even spell properly.
▪ She doesn't know the meaning of the word discretion - probably can't even spell it.
out
▪ This argument is spelled out in detail in Chapter 19.
▪ He needs to spell out why a tax cut is going to help the average family of four.
▪ The courts have not been given a mandate to spell out collective responsibilities, and even less to police them.
▪ This method should be spelled out carefully in the proposal.
▪ I regret that I can not spell out part by part and line by line exactly what I want to achieve.
▪ It will be useful therefore to spell out, if only briefly, some of its main characteristics.
▪ Facts should normally be allowed to speak for themselves: to spell out a conclusion may spell danger.
▪ Prosecutors gave Bailey, an adversary, $ 6 million worth of stock without spelling out any conditions of the transfer.
■ NOUN
danger
▪ Chernobyl spelled out the dangers in letters ten feet high.
▪ No literary work could more eloquently or plainly spell out the dangers that exist for the woman who competes in male pursuits.
▪ Facts should normally be allowed to speak for themselves: to spell out a conclusion may spell danger.
death
▪ Because of this, suffering is less of a threat to happiness, while it spells death to the pleasure-seeking life.
▪ In this case, childish storytelling could have spelled death.
▪ Thought it spelled death for her professional future.
▪ Some in the industry even predicted that e-commerce would spell the death of malls.
detail
▪ This argument is spelled out in detail in Chapter 19.
▪ Don't worry if this isn't entirely clear; it's spelled out in painful detail during the film.
▪ This had implications for teacher training, which the Kingman Report spells out in detail.
▪ Now, Congress will go to work spelling out details of that plan.
▪ This needs to be spelled out in some detail.
▪ Roosevelt did not spell out the details.
▪ The general principles of the document were spelled out in some detail.
▪ Determining the shape all these negotiations will take is difficult because few flat tax plans have been spelled out in detail.
disaster
▪ Staff here say that would spell disaster for hundreds of alcoholics.
▪ All of this spells a disaster for the stock market, Allmon contends.
▪ With reduced legal aid payouts and a tough new means test for applicants looming, it could spell financial disaster.
▪ It only rarely spells universal disaster.
▪ Delegated authority without a meaningful consultation process would spell disaster for teacher morale, motivation, commitment and hence effectiveness.
▪ After all, one case of the trots hardly spells disaster.
▪ You never come in this kitchen but you break something: when you help it spells disaster.
end
▪ Moreover, such a move would probably spell the end of the Greens' day in the political sun.
▪ These new rules spell the end of jobs as we have known them.
▪ Not only was the death of Diego the cause of personal sorrow, it also spelled the end of his family line.
▪ The increase may spell the end to more than a year of intense price competition in the industry, analysts said.
▪ Sterility itself can not be selected for, as success would spell the automatic end of the line involved.
▪ This spelled the end of the Brezhnev doctrine, under which Soviet military power enforced the loyalty of its peripheral satellite states.
▪ They could spell the end of national wage agreements and the sinking of clinical grading before it has properly begun to swim.
▪ For four and five she spells from the other end and for six she again spells the letters.
letter
▪ The letters spelled have fun out doors.
▪ Maybe the letter was not spelled correctly.
▪ The initial letters spell the word H-O-W and serve as a reminder of how recovery is achieved through all one's relationships.
▪ Of course, the letters O-W-E spelled a word, but Quinn was not ready to draw any conclusions.
▪ Yesterday's letter spelled out Mr Patten's concern that councils were helping hostile groups fight opt outs with misinformation campaigns.
name
▪ Make sure it exists and that its name is spelled correctly.
▪ Ask to have the name spelled and ask for the first name if it is not mentioned.
▪ The phone rings at work one afternoon, and a man asks how I spell my name, so I spell it.
▪ Two names in particular spelled trouble.
trouble
▪ This provision is not widely known to farmers, largely because the Departments have never taken sufficient trouble to spell it out.
▪ She still has trouble with the spelling of some words.
▪ It was too much trouble to spell out the sub-titles.
word
▪ There was much subsequent controversy about who invented the word and how to spell its derivatives.
▪ The word went is often spelled yet.
▪ That they find the way that words are spelled to be intriguing, and that they go through life noticing surprising spellings.
■ VERB
ask
▪ You write up the offered words, correctly, without asking how they are spelled.
▪ Finally, she was asked to spell egalitarian, used to describe a belief in human equality.
▪ If at all unsure, ask caller to spell it out. 3.
▪ All he wants is to ask me to spell out the features of the new product.
▪ The phone rings at work one afternoon, and a man asks how I spell my name, so I spell it.
▪ Earlier, in the sixth round, Hulka got the giggles when the contest judges asked him to spell haggis.
▪ I asked him to spell it.
learn
▪ Gill has now started primary skool and is learning to spell.
▪ So she had almost a whole year of the company of her peers and along with them learned to spell and count.
▪ The daughter is playing with letters and learning how to spell.
need
▪ You may need to spell them out or check that they have been understood.
▪ He needs to spell out why a tax cut is going to help the average family of four.
▪ But the significance of what was at stake in this shift in terminology needs to be spelled out.
▪ I need everything spelled out for me.
▪ The rest of the remark he left unsaid, but it did not need spelling out.
▪ Didn't need to have it spelled out.
try
▪ He tries to spell out how we do it.
▪ He made wild tries at phonetic spelling.
▪ On the other hand, since she was trying to spell through she was probably simply putting together badly-remembered letters.
▪ Look at the Morse code chart and, using a torch, try to spell out your name.
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
spell/grammar checker
▪ A spell checker, word count feature and thesaurus are all included and the program can handle headers and footers.
▪ However, a dictionary pack for PageMaker is available which contains PageMaker spell checker modules for 20 different languages.
▪ Some of these packages include excellent typographic extras, like a spell checker or thesaurus.
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ "B-O-O-K" spells "book."
▪ "How do you spell your name?" "S-M-I-T-H."
▪ And your last name is Aitchson? Could your spell that out for me please?
▪ How do you spell your surname?
▪ I've never been able to spell very well in English.
▪ In American English, 'organize' is always spelled with a 'z'.
▪ No one thinks this could spell the closure of the firm, but things could be better.
▪ Out-of-town retail developments often spell the death of independent high street shops.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ Gray also published a book by the same title in which he managed to spell Jon Swain's name incorrectly.
▪ He always spells his name for secretaries.
▪ Some deaf children are, however, very proficient at sign language and they can also spell out words using finger spelling.
▪ That spells trouble for the individual, the team, and, perhaps most important, the client.
▪ The scale of the catastrophe was spelled out by one speaker after another.
▪ These can be spelled out pretty easily on a resume, but the new qualifications can not.
▪ These new rules spell the end of jobs as we have known them.
▪ This argument is spelled out in detail in Chapter 19.
II.noun
COLLOCATIONS FROM CORPUS
■ ADJECTIVE
bad
▪ When you have a bad spell, the natural temptation is probably to become tied up in excuses.
▪ A penalty point in his favour ended his bad spell and he plundered seven points in a row.
brief
▪ The Rumanian talent was world number one for a brief spell in the same year.
▪ Thornton had just left the Mirror Group after a brief but interesting spell in newspapers.
▪ It was just a brief spell of ownership; the war meant petrol rationing.
▪ Apart from the brief cold spell in late November, we have had very few hard frosts.
▪ I should know by now that heavy drinkers are awfully fond of high-flown rationalisations for any brief spell of abstinence.
▪ His bedside locker held the conglomerate of offerings, necessities and minor diversions considered indispensable to a brief spell in hospital.
▪ Darwin met Robert Grant during a brief and unsuccessful spell as a medical student at Edinburgh.
cold
▪ Apart from the brief cold spell in late November, we have had very few hard frosts.
▪ Anyone can suffer a cold shooting spell.
▪ Not even the yawning chasms in the road caused by freeze-thaw action during the recent cold spell can upset it.
▪ They had moved in from the garden during a cold spell in November.
▪ A cold spell simply halts flowering for a little while.
▪ Here, a sharp cold spell in spring may produce a narrow growth ring.
dizzy
▪ She must have had a dizzy spell.
▪ The dizzy spells were increasing in frequency.
▪ I was prompted to write when a customer sat on checkout ten following a dizzy spell.
▪ After Allitt moved out of the Jobsons' home, his dizzy spells, craving for chocolate and sudden collapses had stopped.
▪ If they are arthritic, their sight is poor, or they are subject to dizzy spells they may trip over the flex.
dry
▪ Showers are expected over the whole country - but the south-east may get a dry spell on Saturday and Sunday.
▪ Until I met Donna my social life was a dry spell.
▪ East Anglia: Mostly dry with sunny spells.
▪ The noonday sun beat down fiercely; dusty air carried the stink of rotting garlic after a prolonged dry spell.
▪ That is the kind of dry spell some strikers not too distant from Ewood Park would sell their grandmother for.
▪ Arizona is in the grip of one of its most severe dry spells of the past century.
▪ Already, he says, it is worse than the drought of 1956, once considered the definitive Texas dry spell.
▪ The dry spell is a real turn-around from recent rainy winters.
good
▪ That came in the middle of Wadkins' best spell.
▪ Rod Wallace seems to be in his best spell of scoring since he came to Leeds.
▪ Although he is suffering from a type of septicaemia, he is clearly having a good spell.
▪ Lincoln are in the middle of a good spell, having won five of their last six matches.
▪ And early September generally is set fair to be a good spell for holidays, says his latest bulletin.
lean
▪ The end of a lean spell for Wilkinson has put Boro back on course for the all-important second spot.
▪ That meant Christmas profits, which usually see the railway through the lean spell to April, were not available.
long
▪ Second, there must be a constant supply of water to the sward even during long spells of dry weather.
▪ When I was in Saigon for long spells, and missing Lisa, the scene at the villa was a compensation.
▪ Participants who smoked also had higher rates of short and long spells of sickness absence compared with non-smokers.
▪ After a long and anxious spell, she recovered.
▪ These are the pay and conditions which were imposed following the long spell of industrial action.
▪ Believers in Wray, those who have kept the faith through the long dry spell, are at last well rewarded.
▪ On close inspection it looks more like the second touring production of Absurd Person Singular after a long spell in Pitlochry.
▪ Outlook: Further showers or longer spells of rain likely, some heavy, especially during the evening.
magic
▪ Orkney casts a magic spell that never fades.
▪ Mermaids, magic spells and a giant with a wart on his nose.
▪ The magic spell touched Toulon too.
▪ It was as if Polly had cast a magic spell.
▪ A test as simple as a Detect Magic spell will show some stronger focus of magic above the ceiling of this chamber.
▪ The Tzarina does not use the colour magic spells or any of the spell decks in Warhammer Battle Magic.
▪ Instead she has her own Ice Magic spell deck which is reproduced here.
▪ You may wish to photocopy these spells to make up an Ice Magic spell deck.
short
▪ A short spell of hard work in quiet surroundings would not be a bad thing.
▪ Participants who smoked also had higher rates of short and long spells of sickness absence compared with non-smokers.
▪ No one will benefit from such a short spell.
▪ We assumed that for each participant the occurrence of short spells followed a Poisson distribution.
▪ Considerable excess residual variation was found in the rate of sickness absence for short spells.
▪ Thus, an illness that tends to require frequent short spells in hospital will appear to have a high incidence.
▪ Jock laughingly informed me that when he had arrived in the area there had been a short quiet spell.
▪ We found striking gradients in both short and long spells of sickness absence, with higher rates among employees with lower status.
sunny
▪ It traps the warmth of the odd sunny spell, and wards off the critical few degrees of cold.
▪ General situation: Sunny spells with some drizzle.
▪ Drier weather will follow south with sunny spells, particularly in the more eastern parts.
▪ East Anglia: Mostly dry with sunny spells.
▪ Drier with sunny spells for all areas on Thursday afternoon.
▪ And the outlook for tomorrow's much the same: cloud in the east, sunny spells in the west.
▪ Max temp 17C 63F. 4,7,10,11,12,13,15: Any early rain dying out overnight. Sunny spells tomorrow.
▪ Max 16C 61F. 19,22,23,24,26,27,28: Fine but chilly night with local ground frost. Sunny spells on Sunday.
wet
▪ We would pray for fine weather as a prolonged wet spell meant ruin for our efforts.
▪ Prepare the ground with leaf-mould and a little bonemeal, and mulch with leaf-mould during a wet spell each summer.
■ NOUN
checker
▪ A spell checker, word count feature and thesaurus are all included and the program can handle headers and footers.
▪ Some of these packages include excellent typographic extras, like a spell checker or thesaurus.
▪ However, a dictionary pack for PageMaker is available which contains PageMaker spell checker modules for 20 different languages.
loan
▪ Ironside's one-month loan spell will be completed after the home match against play-off outsiders Gillingham.
▪ Gittens rounded off his loan spell with a crucial equaliser in the final-match decider at Wolves.
▪ Reuser was a £1million signing from Vitesse Arnhem, after spending a loan spell at Ajax where he started his career.
▪ Ironside had a seven-match loan spell at Scarborough before the transfer deadline.
▪ Eight of his 40-goal tally last season came during Nevin's loan spell with Tranmere.
■ VERB
break
▪ No more than usual, was the answer, but at last it was enough to break the spell.
▪ Mrs Fanning had broken the spell of the wild and beautiful dancers.
▪ The tiny sound of distress broke the spell and spurred Grant into action.
▪ I feared my own words might break the spell of normalcy.
▪ I, for one, would not break that spell, nor flaunt the laws that he has made.
▪ The kiss of the prince breaks the spell of narcissism and awakens a womanhood which up to then has remained undeveloped.
▪ He smiled at her and, in offering her reassurance, broke the spell that held them.
▪ And again, louder, as if breaking a spell or casting one: Olppajin-saram.
cast
▪ Their magical resistance does not affect magic weapons or other items, except for those which cast spells in the usual way.
▪ They said she cast spells on them.
▪ A black witch, casting spells from her hiding-place in the corner.
▪ Had he cast a spell just then?
▪ Orkney casts a magic spell that never fades.
▪ Meriwether cast a spell over the young traders who worked for him.
▪ I've seen the cauldrons that they used to cast their spells.
▪ Aladdin refused, so the sorcerer cast a spell to close up the cave again.
enjoy
▪ Gary Lineker is another top-class striker who clings keenly on to boots he's enjoying a scoring spell with.
fall
▪ She fell momentarily under his spell and into his bed.
▪ Lanikai is almost absurdly gorgeous, and even literal-minded scientists fall under its spell.
▪ During this time he falls completely under its spell.
▪ It is not necessary to explain to me why Anthony falls under the spell of a beautiful woman.
▪ I fell under his freezing spell, obeying all his commands without thinking.
▪ While Lisa initially considers her not-too-secret admirer a little strange, she quickly falls under his spell.
▪ Hewitt, 34, fell under Diana's spell while teaching Princes William and Harry to ride.
▪ Once Narcissus had fallen under the spell of Aphrodite he was lost.
follow
▪ Drier weather will follow south with sunny spells, particularly in the more eastern parts.
▪ When it comes it is often followed by a spell of cold weather late in March called the Blackthorn Winter.
weave
▪ They are, in the most fundamental sense, magical: they weave spells, they conjure something out of nothing.
▪ How long did it take to weave a spell?
▪ She might even be weaving a spell to tangle her feet or make her lose her way in the wood!
PHRASES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
cast a spell on/over sb
▪ Meriwether cast a spell over the young traders who worked for him.
▪ They said she cast spells on them.
spell/grammar checker
▪ A spell checker, word count feature and thesaurus are all included and the program can handle headers and footers.
▪ However, a dictionary pack for PageMaker is available which contains PageMaker spell checker modules for 20 different languages.
▪ Some of these packages include excellent typographic extras, like a spell checker or thesaurus.
weave your magic/weave a spell
EXAMPLES FROM OTHER ENTRIES
▪ After a brief spell in the army, I returned to teaching.
▪ Carmelina knew that the bird was really the handsome prince under a spell from the wicked witch.
▪ He's had a spell of bad luck recently.
▪ I've had a few dizzy spells lately.
▪ The Lilac Fairy cast a spell that sent Aurora to sleep.
▪ We had another cold spell last week.
▪ When the old man was angry, he threatened to put a spell on the whole tribe.
EXAMPLES FROM CORPUS
▪ A black witch, casting spells from her hiding-place in the corner.
▪ And in there is the Robemaker's cache of enchantments ... The stockroom of spells ... The necromancer's treasure-house.
▪ As a leading suffragette, she endured the first of two spells in Holloway gaol in 1907.
▪ I thought that, if we were to meet again, he would remove the spell that he had cast over me.
▪ Pick a spell of dry weather and travel light: you could be pleasantly surprised.
▪ They were not among the famous and the sought-after who gathered under the spell of the White City.
▪ We are just here for a spell and pass on.
Related phrases:
The Collaborative International Dictionary
Spell

Spell \Spell\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spelledor Spelt; p. pr. & vb. n. Spelling.] [OE. spellen, spellien, tell, relate, AS. spellian, fr. spell a saying, tale; akin to MHG. spellen to relate, Goth. spill?n.e Spell a tale. In sense 4 and those following, OE. spellen, perhaps originally a different word, and from or influenced by spell a splinter, from the use of a piece of wood to point to the letters in schools: cf. D. spellen to spell. Cf. Spell splinter.]

  1. To tell; to relate; to teach. [Obs.]

    Might I that legend find, By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes.
    --T. Warton.

  2. To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm. ``Spelled with words of power.''
    --Dryden.

    He was much spelled with Eleanor Talbot.
    --Sir G. Buck.

  3. To constitute; to measure. [Obs.]

    The Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effect.
    --Fuller.

  4. To tell or name in their proper order letters of, as a word; to write or print in order the letters of, esp. the proper letters; to form, as words, by correct orthography.

    The word ``satire'' ought to be spelled with i, and not with y.
    --Dryden.

  5. To discover by characters or marks; to read with difficulty; -- usually with out; as, to spell out the sense of an author; to spell out a verse in the Bible.

    To spell out a God in the works of creation.
    --South.

    To sit spelling and observing divine justice upon every accident.
    --Milton.

Spell

Spell \Spell\, n.

  1. The relief of one person by another in any piece of work or watching; also, a turn at work which is carried on by one person or gang relieving another; as, a spell at the pumps; a spell at the masthead.

    A spell at the wheel is called a trick.
    --Ham. Nav. Encyc.

  2. The time during which one person or gang works until relieved; hence, any relatively short period of time, whether a few hours, days, or weeks.

    Nothing new has happened in this quarter, except the setting in of a severe spell of cold weather.
    --Washington.

  3. One of two or more persons or gangs who work by spells.

    Their toil is so extreme that they can not endure it above four hours in a day, but are succeeded by spells.
    --Garew.

  4. A gratuitous helping forward of another's work; as, a logging spell. [Local, U.S.]

Spell

Spell \Spell\, n. [OE. speld, AS. speld a spill to light a candle with; akin to D. speld a pin, OD. spelle, G. spalten to split, OHG. spaltan, MHG. spelte a splinter, Icel. spjald a square tablet, Goth. spilda a writing tablet. Cf. Spillsplinter, roll of paper, Spell to tell the letters of.] A spelk, or splinter. [Obs.]
--Holland.

Spell

Spell \Spell\, n.[AS. spell a saying, tale, speech; akin to OS. & OHG. spel, Icel. spjall,Goth. spill. Cf. Gospel, Spell to tell the letters of.]

  1. A story; a tale. [Obs.] ``Hearken to my spell.''
    --Chaucer.

  2. 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.

Spell

Spell \Spell\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Spelled; p. pr. & vb. n. Spelling.] [AS. spelian to supply another's place.] To supply the place of for a time; to take the turn of, at work; to relieve; as, to spell the helmsman.

Spell

Spell \Spell\, v. i.

  1. To form words with letters, esp. with the proper letters, either orally or in writing.

    When what small knowledge was, in them did dwell, And he a god, who could but read or spell.
    --Dryden.

  2. To study by noting characters; to gain knowledge or learn the meaning of anything, by study. [Obs.]

    Where I may sit and rightly spell Of every star that heaven doth shew, And every herb that sips the dew.
    --Milton.

Related phrases:
Douglas Harper's Etymology Dictionary
spell

"work in place of (another)," 1590s, earlier spele, from Old English spelian "to take the place of, be substitute for, represent," related to gespelia "substitute," of uncertain origin. Perhaps related to spilian "to play" (see spiel). Related: Spelled; spelling.

spell

1620s, "a turn of work in place of another," from spell (v.2); compare Old English gespelia "a substitute." Meaning shifted toward "continuous course of work" (1706), probably via notion of shift work (as at sea) where one man or crew regularly "spelled" another. Hence "continuous stretch" of something (weather, etc.), recorded by 1728. Hence also, via the notion in give a spell (1750) "relieve another by taking a turn of work" came the sense "interval of rest or relaxation" (1845), which took the word to a sense opposite what it had at the start.

spell

early 14c., "read letter by letter, write or say the letters of;" c.1400, "form words by means of letters," apparently a French word that merged with or displaced a native Old English one; both are from the same Germanic root, but the French word had evolved a different sense. The native word is Old English spellian "to tell, speak, discourse, talk," from Proto-Germanic *spellam (cognates: Old High German spellon "to tell," Old Norse spjalla, Gothic spillon "to talk, tell"), from PIE *spel- (2) "to say aloud, recite."\n

\nBut the current senses seem to come from Anglo-French espeller, Old French espelir "mean, signify, explain, interpret," also "spell out letters, pronounce, recite," from Frankish *spellon "to tell" or some other Germanic source, ultimately identical with the native word.\n

\nRelated: Spelled; spelling. In early Middle English still "to speak, preach, talk, tell," hence such expressions as hear spell "hear (something) told or talked about," spell the wind "talk in vain" (both 15c.). Meaning "form words with proper letters" is from 1580s. Spell out "explain step-by-step" is first recorded 1940, American English. Shakespeare has spell (someone) backwards "reverse the character of, explain in a contrary sense, portray with determined negativity."

spell

Old English spell "story, saying, tale, history, narrative, fable; discourse, command," from Proto-Germanic *spellam (see spell (v.1)). Compare Old Saxon spel, Old Norse spjall, Old High German spel, Gothic spill "report, discourse, tale, fable, myth;" German Beispiel "example." From c.1200 as "an utterance, something said, a statement, remark;" meaning "set of words with supposed magical or occult powers, incantation, charm" first recorded 1570s; hence any means or cause of enchantment.\n\nThe term 'spell' is generally used for magical procedures which cause harm, or force people to do something against their will -- unlike charms for healing, protection, etc.

["Oxford Dictionary of English Folklore"]

\nAlso in Old English, "doctrine; a sermon; religious instruction or teaching; the gospel; a book of the Bible;" compare gospel.
Wiktionary
spell

Etymology 1 n. 1 (context obsolete English) speech, discourse. (8th-15th c.) 2 Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers. (from 16th c.) 3 A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formul

  1. (from 16th c.) v

  2. 1 (context obsolete English) To speak, to declaim. (9th-16th

  3. ) 2 (context obsolete English) To tell; to relate; to teach. 3 To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm. Etymology 2

    vb. 1 (context transitive obsolete English) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort. (from 14th c.) 2 (context transitive sometimes with “out” English) To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a wor

  4. (from 16th c.) 3 (context intransitive English) To be able to write or say the letters that form words. 4 (context transitive English) Of letters: to compose (a word). (from 19th c.) Etymology 3

    n. (context dialectal English) A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk. Etymology 4

    n. 1 A shift (of work); a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour. (from 16th c.) 2 A period of (work or other activity). (from 18th c.) vb. 1 (context transitive English) To work in place of (someone). 2 (context transitive English) To rest (someone or something).

Related phrases:
WordNet
spell

  1. v. recite the letters of or give the spelling of; "How do you spell this word?"

  2. indicate or signify; "I'm afraid this spells trouble!" [syn: import]

  3. write or name the letters that comprise the conventionally accepted form of (a word or part of a word); "He spelled the word wrong in this letter" [syn: write]

  4. place under a spell [ant: unspell]

  5. [also: spelt]

spell

  1. n. a psychological state induced by (or as if induced by) a magical incantation [syn: enchantment, trance]

  2. a time for working (after which you will be relieved by someone else); "it's my go"; "a spell of work" [syn: go, tour, turn]

  3. a period of indeterminate length (usually short) marked by some action or condition; "he was here for a little while"; "I need to rest for a piece"; "a spell of good weather"; "a patch of bad weather" [syn: while, piece, patch]

  4. a verbal formula believed to have magical force; "he whispered a spell as he moved his hands"; "inscribed around its base is a charm in Balinese" [syn: magic spell, charm]

  5. [also: spelt]

Related phrases:
Wikipedia
Spell

Spell(s) or The Spell(s) may refer to:

  • Spell (paranormal) or magical formula, a spoken or written pronouncement intended to bring about a specific effect
  • Spelling, the writing of words
Spell (paranormal)

A spell, charm, invocation, or hex is a set of words, spoken or unspoken, which are considered by its user to invoke some magical effect. Historical attestations exist for the use of some variety of incantations in many cultures around the world. Spells can be used in calling upon or summoning a spirit, demon, god or other supernatural agent ( evocation), or to prevent a person from taking some action or in forcing them to remain on some path of action (binding spells).

Spell (album)

Spell is the debut album by former Wham! and George Michael bassist, Deon Estus.

The album contained the hit single, "Heaven Help Me", which featured background vocals by Michael, and reached number 5 on the U.S. Billboard Hot 100 chart in 1989.

Spell (band)

Spell was a collaboration between Rose McDowall and Boyd Rice. The duo covered several songs from the 1960s and 1970s, often modifying the lyrics to make them darker. For instance, the line in the original song " Seasons in the Sun": "Goodbye Papa, please pray for me" becomes "Goodbye Papa, don't pray for me". Several references to hell and death are added as well.

Spell (Unix)

Spell is the standard English language spell checker for Unix.

Appearing in Version 7 Unix, spell was originally written by Stephen C. Johnson of Bell Labs in 1975. Douglas McIlroy later improved its accuracy, performance, and memory use, and described his work and spell in general in his 1982 paper "Development of a Spelling list".

Spell has a simple command-line interface: It goes over all the words in a given text file, and prints a sorted list of unique misspelled words in that file. It does not provide any interface for looking for those words in the file, or helping to correct the mistakes. In 1983, a different spell-checker, ispell (the interactive spell-checker), was ported to Unix. ispell had a user interface for showing the spelling mistakes in context and suggesting how to correct them. Since then, the original Spell tool has been mostly considered obsolete.

Another reason Spell is considered obsolete is that it only supports the English language. Modern spell-checkers for Unix and Linux systems, such as aspell, MySpell and hunspell, support a multitude of different languages and character sets. The Single Unix Specification has officially declared Spell a "legacy application", stating that this was done "because there is no known technology that can be used to make it recognise general language for user-specified input without providing a complete dictionary along with the input file." Nevertheless, the Single Unix Specification does not standardize any other spell-checking utility to take Spell's place.

Because of Spell's problems and the superiority of its alternatives, a free software version of McIlroy's spell has never been written. Instead, in 1996 Thomas Morgan of GNU wrote a simple wrapper to ispell (which was already popular at the time) to replicate spell's original behaviour. Many Linux distributions include this GNU spell, or an even simpler shell script; For example, the "spell" command in Fedora Linux simply runs aspell, as:

cat "$@" | aspell -l --mode=none | sort -u
Related phrases:

Usage examples of "spell".

If Ambry starts acting peculiarly I can try to get him to snap out of the spell or, if that fails, call a doctor.

Those inside would not be fighting an amplified wizard so much as a program, one drawn up by the same machine that Coydt van Haas had first used and developed to create the intricate spells for Spirit, Suzl, and many others, and which New Eden had used for its conversion programs in Nantzee and Mareh.

With Ceis plugged into the little battery amplifier, she sat on the back seat, weaving a spell of unseeing about the three vehicles.

They all stared after it silently, seized by a sense of anticlimax, until Sean broke the spell.

His brief spell in the arcology refuge had shown him how little use theoretical medicine was in the face of real injuries.

Straight at Ged in the small rocking boat he came, opening his long, toothed jaws as he slid down arrowy from the air: so that all Ged had to do was bind his wings and limbs stiff with one sharp spell and send him thus hurtling aside into the sea like a stone falling.

All the wizards with the imperial army redoubled their apotropaic spells.

Democracy was forcing out the ancient autocracy of the Hapsburgs, education and culture were opening up to the masses so that by the time Hitler came to Vienna in 1909 there was opportunity for a penniless young man either to get a higher education or to earn a fairly decent living and, as one of a million wage earners, to live under the civilizing spell which the capital cast over its inhabitants.

The book, published in Canada as Songs of a Sourdough and in New York by Barse and Hopkins as The Spell of the Yukon, ran into seven editions before publication day and twenty-four by 1912.

When I discovered that Nathan Bedlam had gone ahead and used the spell, I was revoltedas much by my inactivity as I was by his use and the fact that we Dragon Kings had forced him into it.

Upon further analysis, a weekly dose of specified minerals matching precisely those found in the benthos were prescribed, and sure enough the spells soon went away.

Now that Bernard had heard himself say it, audibly, distinctly, loudly, the spell of his apprehension seemed broken, and he went on bravely.

Wall Street men fell to the spell of stocks, ruffled shirts and knickerbockers, and as the evening advanced, were quite themselves in the minuette and polka, bowing low in solemn rigidity, leading their lady with high arched arm, grasping her pinched-in waist, and swinging her beruffled, crinolined form in quite the 1860 manner.

This very point was brought up recently in conversation with an artist, who in referring to one of the most successful costume balls ever given in New York--the crinoline ball at the old Astor House--spoke of how our unromantic Wall Street men fell to the spell of stocks, ruffled shirts and knickerbockers, and as the evening advanced, were quite themselves in the minuette and polka, bowing low in solemn rigidity, leading their lady with high arched arm, grasping her pinched-in waist, and swinging her beruffled, crinolined form in quite the 1860 manner.

Ladbroke and Dunstan remembered living Underhill, but were bespelled never to be able to mention it or magic or spells.