Definition of "spell"

spell¹

/spɛl/

noun
plural spells
1. Words or a formula supposed to have magical powers.
2. A magical effect or influence induced by an incantation or formula.
  Quotations
  Skies are not so black / Mary took me back / Mary has broken your spell
  1962, Marty Robbins (lyrics and music), “Devil Woman”
  I believe your love has placed its spell on me
  2020, Deftones, The Spell of Mathematics
3. (obsolete) Speech, discourse.
verb
third-person singular simple present spells, present participle spelling, simple past and past participle spelled
1. To put under the influence of a spell; to affect by a spell; to bewitch; to fascinate; to charm.
  Quotations
  Vnchaine your spirits now with spelling Charmes,
  1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene iii], page 115, column 2
  […] although the Kings Jealousie was thus particular to her, his Affection was as general to others […] Above all, for a time he was much speld with Elianor Talbot […]
  1647, George Buck, The History and Life and Reigne of Richard the Third‎, London, Book 4, p. 116
  This, gather’d in the Planetary Hour, / With noxious Weeds, and spell’d with Words of pow’r / Dire Stepdames in the Magick Bowl infuse;
  1697, John Dryden (translator), Georgics, Book 3 in The Works of Virgil, London: Jacob Tonson, p. 109, lines 444-446
  But when, O Wells! thy roses came to meMy sense with their deliciousness was spell’d:
  1817, John Keats, “To a Friend who sent me some Roses”, in Poems‎, London: C. & J. Ollier, page 83

spell²

/spɛl/

verb
third-person singular simple present spells, present participle spelling, simple past and past participle spelled or (mostly UK) spelt
1. (intransitive, transitive, sometimes with “out”) To write or say the letters that form a word or part of a word.
2. (transitive, obsolete) To read (something) as though letter by letter; to peruse slowly or with effort.
  Quotations
  "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.
  1851, Herman Melville, Moby Dick
3. (transitive) Of letters: to compose (a word).
  Quotations
  In Esperanto each letter has only one sound, and each sound is represented in only one way. The words are pronounced exactly as spelt, every letter being sounded.
  2008, Helen Fryer, The Esperanto Teacher‎, BiblioBazaar, LLC, page 13
  Welcome to the League Aiming to Menace and Overthrow Spies!You realize that spells “LAMOS”?
  2006 March 13, Richard Clark, “The Dream Teens”, in Totally Spies!: Undercover, season 4, episode 1, spoken by Terrence Lewis and Tim Scam (Matt Charles and Michael Gough), Marathon Media, via Teletoon
4. (transitive, figuratively, with “out”) To clarify; to explain in detail.
  Quotations
  When we get elected, for instance, we get one of these, and we are pretty much told what is in it, and it is our responsibility to read it and understand it, and if we do not, the Ethics Committee, we can call them any time of day and ask them to spell it out for us […]
  2003, U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbel, Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
5. (transitive) To indicate that (some event) will occur; typically followed by a single-word noun.
6. To constitute; to measure.
  Quotations
  the Saxon heptarchy, when seven kings put together did spell but one in effectThe spelling has been modernized.
  1655, Thomas Fuller, edited by James Nichols, The Church History of Britain, […], new edition, volumes (please specify |volume=I to III), London: […] [James Nichols] for Thomas Tegg and Son, […], published 1837
7. (obsolete) To speak, to declaim.
  Quotations
  O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell?
  1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie
8. (obsolete) To tell; to relate; to teach.
  Quotations
  As thro’ the caverns dim I wind, / Might I that legend find, / By fairies spelt in mystic rhymes,
  1770, Thomas Warton, “Ode on the Approach of Summer” in A Collection of Poems in Four Volumes, London: G. Pearch, Volume 1, p. 278

spell³

/spɛl/

verb
third-person singular simple present spells, present participle spelling, simple past and past participle spelled or spelt
1. (transitive) To work in place of (someone).
2. (transitive) To rest (someone or something), to give someone or something a rest or break.
3. (intransitive, colloquial) To rest from work for a time.
noun
plural spells
1. (rare) a set of workers responsible for a specific turn of labour.
2. (informal) A definite period (of work or other activity).
  Quotations
  A chap named Eleazir Kendrick and I had chummed in together the summer afore and built a fish-weir and shanty at Setuckit Point, down Orham way. For a spell we done pretty well. Then there came a reg'lar terror of a sou'wester same as you don't get one summer in a thousand, and blowed the shanty flat and ripped about half of the weir poles out of the sand.
  1913, Joseph C. Lincoln, chapter 1, in Mr. Pratt's Patients
  I had a job in the great North Woods / Workin' as a cook for a spell / But I never did like it all that much / And one day the ax just fell
  1975, Bob Dylan (lyrics and music), “Tangled Up in Blue”
  Despite his ill-fated spell at Anfield, he received a warm reception from the same Liverpool fans he struggled to win over before being sacked midway through last season.
  2012 April 22, Sam Sheringham, “Liverpool 0-1 West Brom”, in BBC Sport
3. (colloquial) An indefinite period of time (usually with a qualifier); by extension, a relatively short distance.
  Quotations
  Even Mrs. Harker seems to lose sight of her trouble for whole spells. [...] When he had spoken, Mina's long spell of silence made me look at her.
  1897, Bram Stoker, chapter 24, in Dracula‎, HTML edition
  So after a short spell in the brass foundry the wisest course was to follow with a similar period in the steel foundry, where much important work was done, including the manufacture of centres for wheels.
  1944 November and December, A Former Pupil, “Some Memories of Crewe Works—II”, in Railway Magazine, page 343
  [...] Class 37s became synonymous with the depot, and over the years more than a third of the class had a spell allocated to the shed.
  2020 June 17, John Crosse, “Thornaby's traction transition”, in Rail, page 65
4. A period of rest; time off.
5. (colloquial, US) A period of illness, or sudden interval of bad spirits, disease etc.
6. (cricket) An uninterrupted series of alternate overs bowled by a single bowler.

spell⁴

/spɛl/

noun
plural spells
1. (dialectal) A splinter, usually of wood; a spelk.
  Quotations
  To swadle a bowe much about wyth bandes, verye seldome dothe anye good, excepte it be to kepe downe a spel in the backe.
  1544 (date written; published 1571), Roger Ascham, Toxophilus, the Schole, or Partitions, of Shooting. […], London: […] Thomas Marshe; republished in The English Works of Roger Ascham, […], London: […] R[obert] and J[ames] Dodsley, […], and J[ohn] Newbery, […], 1761,
2. The wooden bat in the game of trap ball, or knurr and spell.

Definition of "spell"

spell1

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verb

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spell2

verb

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spell3

verb

noun

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spell4

noun

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spell¹

spell²

spell³

spell⁴