witches' Sabbath
1
9.9
- noun
- /ˈwɪtʃɪz ˈsæbəθ/
- Archaic
:
sábana de brujas
- According to legend, the witches' Sabbath was a time when witches would gather under the full moon to perform dark rituals.
Examples
-
Sacrificed at a witches' Sabbath, no doubt.
-
He took me to the witches' Sabbath.
-
During the witches' Sabbath, villagers would often hear strange chants echoing through the woods at midnight.
-
The tales of the witches' Sabbath speak of horrifying ceremonies and the summoning of malevolent spirits.
Synonyms
1
9.9
A secret night meeting of witches to do magic, often feared in old stories
Surface Forms
Morphology
witches' + Sabbath
A learner who knows 'witches' (practitioners of witchcraft) and 'Sabbath' (a religious/ritual day) can reasonably infer that 'witches' Sabbath' refers to a ritual or holy-day-type gathering of witches, so the basic idea is compositional. However, the phrase carries specific folkloric/demonic and nocturnal connotations (a midnight witches' meeting) that are culturally specific and not fully predictable from the parts, so full meaning requires prior exposure.
Etymology
Witches' Sabbath comes from old stories of witches meeting at night on hills to dance, feast, and make deals with the devil. The word Sabbath once meant 'a meeting', so the phrase came to mean a 'secret night gathering' of witches in tales and folklore.