charm

Pluralcharms

Formscharms, charming, charmed

1. 1
   nouncountable or uncountableplural

   The ability to persuade, delight, or arouse the admiration of others.

   The senator relied on personal charm rather than policy details to win votes.

   Despite its peeling paint, the old cottage had a quiet charm that drew visitors in.

   Similarappeal, charisma, attraction

   Oppositeboredom, dryness

   Note

   Magic turned into personality: the power once credited to spells and talismans here belongs to a person. In the plural it often names the attractive qualities themselves, as in she tried to win him over with her charms. Milton writes of "the charm of Beauty's powerful glance," and Congreve's line in The Mourning Bride (1697), "Music has charms to soothe a savage breast," keeps the magical sense in play.

2. 2
   verbtransitive

   To appeal to someone or something in a way that fascinates, persuades, or seduces them.

   The startup's founder charmed investors with a confident, funny pitch.

   Politicians charm voters at county fairs every election season.

   Similarenchant, delight, entrance, enamor

   Oppositerepel, alienate, disgust

   Note

   The everyday verb, where the magic is only a manner of speaking. Its past participle often works as an adjective followed by with. The American novelist Winston Churchill's The Celebrity (1897) has three ladies return "wondering and charmed with Mrs. Cooke." Milton lets jocund music "charm his ear," so the object can be a sense as well as a whole person.

3. 3
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A small trinket worn on a bracelet or chain, traditionally believed to bring luck to the wearer.

   She added a new charm to her bracelet for every city she visited.

   The necklace held three gold charms, each marking a family birthday.

   Similaramulet, ornament, trinket

4. 4
   nouncountable or uncountable

   An object, act, or set of words believed to hold magic power, usually of a helpful kind.

   Villagers nailed a charm above the doorway to ward off evil spirits.

   The manuscript preserves healing charms that farmers once spoke over their fields.

   Similarspell, incantation, talisman

   Note

   The root of the whole family is Old French charme, a chant or magic spell, from Latin carmen, "song, incantation": a charm began as something sung. The word leans hopeful, so a charm is usually a charm against evil, and the idiom works like a charm keeps that promise of effortless success. Spell and incantation stress the words spoken; talisman stresses the object.

5. 5
   verbtransitive

   To subdue, control, or summon by incantation or supernatural influence; to exert a magical effect on.

   The enchantress charmed the guards asleep before slipping into the tower.

   Folk tales describe musicians who charm serpents with a single tune.

   Similarbewitch, enchant, ensorcel, enspell

   Note

   Here the magic is literal, and unlike the noun it promises no goodwill. Shakespeare's Cymbeline wishes "Nor no witch-craft charm thee," counting the charm among the harms to be kept away. Objects can be charmed as well as people, like a chain thought to bring wins. That use shades into the protective meaning.

6. 6
   verbtransitive

   To soothe, allay, or overcome, as if by a secret power or by something that gives pleasure.

   The steady rain charmed the household into a drowsy calm.

   Sailors once believed a low song could charm rough waters.

   Similarsoothe, lull, calm, pacify

   Oppositeagitate

   Note

   The thing charmed can be the trouble itself rather than the person. In Alexander Pope's Ode for Music on St. Cecilia's Day, music can charm "the fiercest griefs" and disarm fate's rage. Read it as allay or calm: a grief that is charmed is quieted, not delighted. That difference keeps it apart from the everyday "fascinate" verb.

7. 7
   verbtransitive

   To protect, or make invulnerable, by means of spells or other supernatural influence.

   According to the saga, a witch charmed the hero's skin against iron weapons.

   Some folk healers claim they can charm a house against lightning.

   Note

   The idiom to lead a charmed life belongs to this verb. A charmed life is guarded as if by spells and comes through danger untouched. Shakespeare's Cymbeline turns the protection bitter: "I, in mine own woe charm'd, / Could not find death." There the speaker is kept alive against their own wish, and the charm feels more like a sentence than a gift.

8. 8
   nouncountable or uncountable

   In particle physics, a quantum number of a hadron that depends on how many charm quarks and antiquarks it contains.

   The J/psi meson has hidden charm because its quark and antiquark cancel each other out.

   Charm is conserved in strong and electromagnetic interactions but not in weak decays.

   Note

   Physicists postulated the property to explain the long life of the psi particle, as Sandra Blakeslee reported in The New York Times in 1975: charm blocks the particle's easy decay. The quark that carries it is the charm or charmed quark. D mesons, which pair it with an up or down antiquark, carry explicit charm, just as K mesons carry strangeness. Charm is conserved in strong and electromagnetic interactions but changes in weak ones.

9. 9
   nouncountable or uncountable

   A group of goldfinches: the traditional collective noun for the species.

   A charm of goldfinches scattered from the thistles as we approached.

   Every autumn a charm of goldfinches descends on the sunflower field.

   Similarflock

10. 10
    nouncountable

    A flock of birds, used especially of finches.

    A charm of siskins worked through the alder cones along the river.

    At dusk the orchard drew a charm of mixed finches to its branches.

    Similarflock

    Note

    The flock word grows from the same Old English root as the din of many voices. It is still in use: Holly Ringland's The Lost Flowers of Alice Hart (2018) has "a charm of finches" singing overhead. It takes of and the bird's name. For goldfinches it is the fixed collective term.

Showing meanings only. Show all 14