Charm

Pronunciation

• US IPA: /tʃɑɹm/
• RP IPA: /tʃɑːm/
• Rhymes: -ɑː(ɹ)m

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

Full definition of charm

Noun

1. An object, act or words believed to have magic power.a charm against evilIt 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 PopeCharms strike the sight, but merit wins the soul.
• Miltonthe 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.

Synonyms

• (something with magic power): amulet, incantation, spell, talisman
• (quality of arousing delight or admiration): appeal, attraction, charisma
• (trinket): amulet, dangle, ornament

Antonyms

• (quality of arousing delight or admiration): boredom, dryness

Verb

1. (seduce, entrance or fascinate)To seduce, persuade or fascinate someone or something.
• John MiltonThey, on their mirth and dance
  Intent, with jocund music charm his ear.
• 1898, Winston Churchill, The Celebrity Chapter 4, 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.
2. He charmed her with his dashing tales of his days as a sailor.
3. (transitive) To use a magical charm upon; to subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence.
• William ShakespeareNo witchcraft charm thee!
4. After winning three games while wearing the chain, Dan began to think it had been charmed.
5. To protect with, or make invulnerable by, spells, charms, or supernatural influences.
• William ShakespeareI, in my own woe charmed,
  Could not find death.
6. She led a charmed life.
7. (obsolete, rare) To make music upon.
• Edmund SpenserHere we our slender pipes may safely charm.
8. To subdue or overcome by some secret power, or by that which gives pleasure; to allay; to soothe.
• Alexander PopeMusic the fiercest grief can charm.

Synonyms

• (seduce, entrance or fascinate): delight, enchant, entrance, win one over
• (use magic): bewitch, enchant, ensorcel, enspell

Derived terms

Variant of chirm, from Middle English chirme, from Old English Ä‹ierm ("cry, alarm"), from Proto-Germanic *karmiz.

Noun

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 ...
• Spenserfree 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).

Anagrams

• march, March