Word.ws English Dictionary

sorcel

sorcel is the alternative form of ensorcell.

Meaning of ensorcell

Verb

ensorcell (third-person singular simple present ensorcells, present participle ensorcelling, simple past and past participle ensorcelled)

  1. (UK, transitive) To bewitch or enchant.
    • Not any one of all theſe honord parts / Your Princely happes, and habites that do moue, / And as it vvere, enſorcell all the hearts / Of Chriſten kings to quarrell for your loue, […]1589, attributed to George Puttenham, “Of Figures Sententious, otherwise Called Rhetoricall”, in The Arte of English Poesie. […], London: […] Richard Field, […], →OCLC, 3rd booke (Of Ornament), page...
  2. (UK, figuratively, transitive) To captivate, entrance, or fascinate.
    • [A] distinction is drawn between the man who speaks as a friend and the man who acts like one. Not only might someone fail to live up to his words in deed, but he may ‘ensorcell’ or ‘beguile’ (θέλγοι) a fellow drinker, leading him to believe in friendship that is not supported by his conduct.2013, Fiona Hobden, “Politics in Action”, in The Symposion in Ancient Greek Society and Thought, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, →ISBN, page 157

Forms of sorcel

third-person singular presentsorcels
present participle USsorceling
present participle UKsorcelling
past participle USsorceled
past USsorceled
past participle UKsorcelled
past UKsorcelled

Questions about sorcel

What is sorcel the alternative form of?
Sorcel is the alternative form of ensorcell.

Words near sorcel in the dictionary

  1. sorbuses
  2. Sorby
  3. sorbyite
  4. sorbyl
  5. Sorce
  6. sorcel
  7. sorceled
  8. sorcell
  9. sorcelled
  10. sorcelling
  11. sorcerer

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: sorcel (page history and authors); ensorcell (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “sorcel.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sorcel. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.