wise woman
(For the general sense ‘a woman who is wise’ see wise a. 1.)
1. A woman skilled in magic or hidden arts; a female magician, soothsayer, etc.; a witch, sorceress; esp. a harmless or beneficent one, who deals in charms against disease, misfortune, or malignant witchcraft. Now dial. or arch.
| 1382 Wyclif 2 Sam. xiv. 2 Joab..sente to Thekuam, and took thens a wise womman. 1552 Huloet, Wise woman that telleth fortune. 1598 Shakes. Merry W. iv. v. 27 Was't not the Wise-woman of Brainford? 1601 W. Percy Cuckqueanes & Cuckolds Errants v. vi. (Roxb.) 74, I haue haunted a wise woman of our Parish in Maldon, hath taught mee the spell of eury each of them. 1612 [see wiseman 3]. 1653 H. More Antid. Ath. iii. vii. §8 (1712) 107 The help and skill of the Witch or Wise-woman. 1828 Hone Table Bk. II. 777 An old woman..who was..accounted a wise woman, and a practiser of the ‘art that none may name’. 1875 in Miss Jackson Shropsh. Folk-lore (1883) 146, I asked him if Mrs. P― was a witch? He answered, she was a wise woman, and only used her knowledge to stop others doing wrong. 1885 A. H. Bullen in Dict. Nat. Biog. I. 112/2 In his extremity he sought the assistance of a wisewoman, Alison Pearson, who treated him so successfully that he completely recovered. His enemies ascribed his cure to witchcraft. |
2. A midwife (= F. sage-femme): cf. sage a. 2 b.
| 1821 Scott Kenilw. xxiv, ‘O, what, you have got the wise woman, then?’ said Varney. |