witch ball

plural witch balls · alternative witchball · alternative witch-ball

1. A hollow sphere of plain or stained glass hung in windows in 18th-century England to ward off evil spirits, witches' spells or ill fortune.

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   The dozen or so couples were walking and jiving to their tables and the crimson light was turned off under the glass dance-floor. Instead, pencil-thin lights in the roof came on and hit coloured glass witchballs, larger than footballs, that hung at intervals round the wall. They were of different hues, golden, blue, green, violet, red.

   1954, Ian Fleming, “Table Z”, in Live and Let Die, London: Pan Books, published 1957, page 55

   To prevent the possibility of over-looking, it was only necessary to direct the glance elsewhere. This intention lay behind the coloured glass "witch-balls" hung in cottage windows; the garlands of flowers or bright berried branches nailed above the stable and cowshed doors or placed around the necks of cattle. [...] All were in the nature of red herrings to attract this important first glance.

   1965, Ruth E. St. Leger-Gordon, Witchcraft and Folklore of Dartmoor, page xviii. 156