Adjacent Words

eldritch definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

adj
1: suggesting the operation of supernatural influences; "an eldritch screech"; "the three weird sisters"; "stumps...had uncanny shapes as of monstrous creatures"- John Galsworthy; "an unearthly light"; "he could hear the unearthly scream of some curlew piercing the din"- Henry Kingsley [syn: eldritch, weird, uncanny, unearthly]

Merriam Webster's

adjective Etymology: perhaps from Middle English *elfriche fairyland, from Middle English elf + riche kingdom, from Old English r?ce — more at rich Date: 1508 weird, eerie <whose voice had risen to a kind of eldritch singsong — R. L. Stevenson>

Oxford Reference Dictionary

adj. Sc. 1 weird. 2 hideous. Etymology: 16th c.: perh. f. OE elfrice (unrecorded) 'fairy realm'

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Eldritch El"dritch, a. Hideous; ghastly; as, an eldritch shriek or laugh. [Local, Eng.]