charming

Pluralcharmings

1. 1
   adjective

   Pleasant and charismatic in manner or personality.

   Our guide was charming and knowledgeable, and the tour flew by.

   They restored a charming farmhouse on the edge of town.

   Similarcharismatic, witty

   Oppositedull, charmless

   Note

   Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice (1813) calls dancing "a charming amusement," and the word praises pastimes and places as readily as people. It compares with more and most: more charming, most charming. Charminger and charmingest also occur, but they are nonstandard and best avoided in careful writing. Its opposites are dull and, more pointedly, charmless.

2. 2
   adjective

   Delightful in a playful way that sidesteps responsibility or seriousness, as if winning people over through a magical charm.

   He apologized with a charming grin and somehow left the cleanup to everyone else.

   Her charming refusal to take anything seriously made the meetings fun but unproductive.

   Similardisarming, winning, endearing, engaging, beguiling

   Oppositecharmless

   Note

   Here the praise comes with a raised eyebrow. Unlike the everyday compliment, this charm works by deflection: the grin that leaves the cleanup to others, the lightness that keeps a meeting from getting anywhere. The image of enchantment from casting a spell is felt again, because the charmer gets away with it as if by magic. Use it when delight and complaint arrive together.

3. 3
   verb

   Present participle and gerund of charm.

   She spent the evening charming investors into backing the project.

   Charming wild birds to your hand takes weeks of quiet patience.

   Note

   The verb form shares its spelling with the adjective, and a sentence can turn on which one it is. In "she was charming the investors," it is the verb, because it takes an object. In "she was very charming," it is the everyday compliment, because it takes very. As a gerund it heads a noun phrase and keeps the verb's older magic, as in charming snakes or charming birds to the hand.

4. 4
   interjectionironicBritish

   Used ironically in response to behavior or language considered rude or uncouth.

   "Charming," she muttered as the taxi sped through the puddle and soaked her.

   My flatmate left his dishes in the sink for a week, then asked why the kitchen smelled. Charming.

   Similarnice, great

   Note

   The compliment turned inside out, and chiefly British. It is said flatly, often as "Oh, charming," after something rude, crude or grim. Peter Bradshaw ends a passage of a Guardian review in 2009 with it, after describing a murder filmed and the recording sent to a man's home for his daughter to see. The tone does all the work. It is always deadpan, never warm, and it stands alone as a reply.

5. 5
   nouncountable or uncountable

   The act or practice of casting a magical charm.

   The trial records accused her of the charming of a neighbor's cattle.

   He paid the old healer for a charming to protect his ship from storms.

   Similarenchantment, bewitchment

   Note

   A noun from the world of village witchcraft, and a countable one: its plural is charmings. Thomas Middleton's The Witch (1616) places it among household concerns a witch might be accused of harming, alongside brewlocks, batches and breedings. A charming in this sense is a particular working done by someone, not charm in the abstract.

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