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charm

Contents

EnglishEdit

PronunciationEdit

Etymology 1Edit

From Old French charme (chant, magic spell), from Latin carmen (song, incantation)

NounEdit

charm (countable and uncountable, plural charms)

  1. An object, act or words believed to have magic power (usually carries a positive connotation).
    a charm against evil
    It works like a charm.
  2. The ability to persuade, delight or arouse admiration; often constructed in the plural.
    He had great personal charm.
    She tried to win him over with her charms.
    • Alexander Pope
      Charms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
    • Milton
      the charm of beauty's powerful glance
  3. (physics) A quantum number of hadrons determined by the quantity of charm quarks & antiquarks.
  4. A small trinket on a bracelet or chain, etc., traditionally supposed to confer luck upon the wearer.
    She wears a charm bracelet on her wrist.
SynonymsEdit
AntonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit
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VerbEdit

charm (third-person singular simple present charms, present participle charming, simple past and past participle charmed)

  1. To seduce, persuade or fascinate someone or something.
    • John Milton
      They, on their mirth and dance / Intent, with jocund music charm his ear.
    • 1898, Winston Churchill, chapter 4, in The Celebrity:
      The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track. The three returned wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke; they were sure she had had no hand in the furnishing of that atrocious house.
    He charmed her with his dashing tales of his days as a sailor.
  2. (transitive) To use a magical charm upon; to subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence.
    After winning three games while wearing the chain, Dan began to think it had been charmed.
  3. To protect with, or make invulnerable by, spells, charms, or supernatural influences.
    She led a charmed life.
  4. (obsolete, rare) To make music upon.
  5. To subdue or overcome by some secret power, or by that which gives pleasure; to allay; to soothe.
SynonymsEdit
TranslationsEdit

Derived termsEdit

Etymology 2Edit

Variant of chirm, from Middle English chirme, from Old English ċierm (“cry, alarm”), from Proto-Germanic *karmiz.

NounEdit

charm (plural charms)

  1. The mixed sound of many voices, especially of birds or children.
    • 1667, John Milton, Paradise Lost, Book IV:
      Sweet is the breath of Morn, her rising sweet, / With charm of earliest Birds […]
    • Spenser
      free liberty to chant our charms at will
    • 1955, William Golding, The Inheritors, Faber and Faber 2005, p. 152:
      The laughter rose like the charm of starlings.
  2. A flock, group (especially of finches).

AnagramsEdit

DanishEdit

Etymology 1Edit

Borrowed from English charm.

NounEdit

charm c (singular definite charmen, plural indefinite charms)

  1. charm
InflectionEdit
Declension of charm
common
gender		 Singular Plural
indefinite definite indefinite definite
nominative charm charmen charms charmene
genitive charms charmens charms' charmenes

Etymology 2Edit

See charme (“to charm”).

VerbEdit

charm

  1. imperative of charme

SwedishEdit

PronunciationEdit

NounEdit

charm c

  1. charm; the ability to persuade, delight, or arouse admiration

DeclensionEdit

Declension of charm
uncountable uncountable
Common indefinite definite
nominative charm charmen
genitive charms charmens

Related termsEdit

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