Meanings
present singular third person unspells · participle present unspelling · participle past unspelled · past unspelled
- transitiveTo break the power of (a spell); to release (a person) from the influence of a spell; to disenchant.
Such practices as Theſe, too groſs to lye / Long unobſerv'd by each diſcerning Eye, / The more judicious Iſraelites Unſpell'd, / Though ſtill the Charm the giddy Rabble held, […]
1682, [Nahum Tate; John Dryden], The Second Part of Absalom and Achitophel. A Poem, London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 51 more example
If Burd Ellen had gone “widishins" round the church, she would, I think, have used the best homoeopathic specific against the Elf-King's power; for "to go widishins" was the chief element in elfin practices, and if mortals wished to resist or unspell elf-craft, they, too, had "to go widershins," or they had to repeat the Paternoster backwards, which came to the same thing, or do something else contrariwise.
1891 January 3, I. Gollancz, “Widishins”, in The Academy, London, page 14, column 3
Synonyms & antonyms
Synonym sets from Open English WordNet, CC BY 4.0.
Origin
Cite this entry
unspell. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unspell
“unspell.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unspell. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “unspell,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/unspell.
Source: unspell on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.