Citations:spell

English citations of spell

Noun: "magical effect or influence"

• 1956, Screamin' Jay Hawkins (lyrics and music), “I Put a Spell on You”:

  I put a spell on you 'cause you're mine / You better stop the things that you do / I ain't lyin', no, I ain't lyin'

Verb: "to speak, to declaim"

• 1590, Edmund Spenser, The Faerie Queene, I.ii:

  O who can tell / The hidden power of herbes, and might of Magicke spell?

Verb: "to read letter by letter"

• 1851, Herman Melville, Moby-Dick:

  "He'll do," said Bildad, eyeing me, and then went on spelling away at his book in a mumbling tone quite audible.

• 2008, Helen Fryer, The Esperanto Teacher, BiblioBazaar, LLC, →ISBN, page 13:

  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.

Verb: "to clarify"

• 2003, U.S. Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbel, Hearing before the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, →ISBN:

  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[...].