Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The power or quality of pleasing or delighting; appeal.
  • noun A quality that pleases or attracts; a delightful characteristic.
  • noun A small ornament, such as one worn on a bracelet.
  • noun An item worn for its supposed magical benefit, as in warding off evil; an amulet.
  • noun An action or formula thought to have magical power.
  • noun A quantum property of subatomic particles that is conserved in electromagnetic and strong interactions but may not be conserved in weak interactions that cause the decay of particles containing charm quarks.
  • noun The quantum number that represents the charm property, equal to the difference between the number of charm quarks and the number of charm antiquarks.
  • intransitive verb To delight or fascinate.
  • intransitive verb To induce by means of strong personal attractiveness.
  • intransitive verb To cast or seem to cast a spell on; bewitch.
  • intransitive verb To be alluring or pleasing.
  • intransitive verb To function as an amulet or charm.
  • intransitive verb To use magic spells.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A melody; a song.
  • noun Anything believed to possess some occult or supernatural power, such as an amulet, a spell, or some mystic observance or act.
  • noun Hence A trinket, such as a locket, seal, etc., worn especially on a watch-guard.
  • noun An irresistible power to please and attract, or something which possesses this power; fascination; allurement; attraction.
  • noun Synonyms Spell, enchantment, witchery, magic.
  • noun The confused low murmuring of a flock of birds; chirm.
  • noun In hawking, a company: said of goldfinches.
  • To subdue, control, or bind, as if by incantation or magical influence; soothe, allay, or appease.
  • To fortify or make invulnerable with charms.
  • To give exquisite pleasure to; fascinate; enchant.
  • To affect by or as if by magic or supernatural influences: as, to charm a serpent out of his hole or into a stupor; to charm away one's grief; to charm the wind into silence.
  • To play upon; produce musical sounds from.
  • = Syn. 1, 2, and Fascinate, etc. (see enchant), delight, transport, bewitch, ravish, enrapture, captivate.
  • To produce the effect of a charm; work with magic power; act as a charm or spell.
  • To give delight; be highly pleasing: as, a melody that could charm more than any other.
  • To give forth musical sounds.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • transitive verb Obs. & R. To make music upon; to tune.
  • transitive verb To subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence; to affect by magic.
  • transitive verb To subdue or overcome by some secret power, or by that which gives pleasure; to allay; to soothe.
  • transitive verb To attract irresistibly; to delight exceedingly; to enchant; to fascinate.
  • transitive verb To protect with, or make invulnerable by, spells, charms, or supernatural influences.
  • intransitive verb To use magic arts or occult power; to make use of charms.
  • intransitive verb To act as, or produce the effect of, a charm; to please greatly; to be fascinating.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To make a musical sound.
  • noun obsolete A melody; a song.
  • noun A word or combination of words sung or spoken in the practice of magic; a magical combination of words, characters, etc.; an incantation.
  • noun That which exerts an irresistible power to please and attract; that which fascinates; any alluring quality.
  • noun Anything worn for its supposed efficacy to the wearer in averting ill or securing good fortune.
  • noun Any small decorative object worn on the person, as a seal, a key, a silver whistle, or the like. Bunches of charms are often worn at the watch chain.
  • noun (Physics) a property of certain quarks which may take the value of +1, -1 or 0.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun An object, act or words believed to have magic power.
  • noun The ability to persuade, delight or arouse admiration; often constructed in the plural.
  • noun physics A quantum number of hadrons determined by the quantity of charm quarks & antiquarks.
  • noun A small trinket on a bracelet or chain, etc.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English charme, magic spell, from Old French, from Latin carmen, incantation; see kan- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Middle English charme (chant, magic spell)< Old French< Latin carmen (song, incantation)

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Variant of chirm, perhaps after Etymology 1, above.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word charm.

Examples

  • WHATEVER!! hehe well I'm gunna * charm so ron can't read* PRETEND TO * end charm* sleep. .so bye! love you all ... some more then others ...

    katebell Diary Entry katebell 2003

  • It sent me to the hospital, got me addicted, and now i have to come back sometimes just to make sure im okay. * charm so gin can't read*They also suggested me to go into drug rehab, but I don't think i need it, really. * end charm*

    katebell Diary Entry katebell 2003

  • That we broke up. * charm so nobody can read* you don't know how hard/weird that is to say. * end charm* but anyways, heres what it said.

    katebell Diary Entry katebell 2003

  • And no matter how odd my request seemed, * charm so Lupin can't read* I didn't tell him why I wanted one, just that I wanted one * ends charm* he let me have one!

    katebell Diary Entry katebell 2003

  • * charm so only people who know can read* I went to see Dr. Robinson again (ooc: that is if he's still around, jackie or hay, if hes not, let me know lol. thanks bunches) I can't believe that its almost been a year. my minds been elsewhere today*end charm** charm so only alyssa & em can read* Its almost been a year. god DAMNIT.

    katebell Diary Entry katebell 2003

  • IV. xii.25 (227,3) this grave charm] I know not by what authority, nor for what reason, _this_ grave _charm_, which the first, the only original copy exhibits, has been through all the modern editors changed to _this_ gay _charm_.

    Notes to Shakespeare, Volume III: The Tragedies Samuel Johnson 1746

  • Barbie has been around for 50 years; although she has never been given a decisive storyline for her life that would translate into a concrete idea for a movie (however cheesy it might wind up being) part of her charm is the fact that she has been and done everything.

    The Barbie movie: Plastic fantastic or dollpocalypse now? | EW.com 2009

  • And they had things like talking about the fact that Kerry -- John Kerry is trying to fill what they called the charm gap by picking John Edwards.

    CNN Transcript Jul 6, 2004 2004

  • Strolling through the picture-gallery with an old friend, she who, though born to millions, kept fresh that perfume of womanliness which we call charm: "You look tired to-night," said he.

    Impressions of a War Correspondent George Lynch

  • Her greatest charm was precisely what we call charm -- a sweetly willing, pliant disposition, an air of gay seriousness, such as a child has, and a mood which could run swiftly, at the touch on some secret spring, from the ripple of laughter to the urgency of tears.

    The Fool Errant Maurice Hewlett 1892

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • theres a word for a shy player... charming

    December 20, 2006

  • a company of birds, a flock, expression used by Milton

    _A Dictionary of Archaic and Provincial Words, Obsolete Phrases, Proverbs and Ancient Customs, by James Orchard Halliwell-Phillips, 1881

    February 26, 2008