Obeah

Quick meaning: Obeah is a noun meaning A form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.

Meaning

A form of folk magic, medicine or witchcraft originating in Africa and practised in parts of the Caribbean.

More Meanings

1. A magician or witch doctor of the magic craft.
2. A spell performed in the practice of the magic craft; an item associated with such a spell.
3. (transitive) To bewitch using this kind of folk magic.

Example Sentences

[…] but he went down to death, with dusky dreams of African shadow-catchers and Obeahs hunting him.

A Jamaican Christian came to me for counseling. […] I asked him if he had been charmed as a child by an Obeah. Obeahs are the magicians of the Carribean^([sic]) islands.

A poor old woman who thinks she has been Obeahed lies ill in an isolated hut on the short cut to New Castle. I discovered her while out shooting, and promised to send her medical aid. Her case is pressing.

Although Adair suspected that obeahs often employed poisons, he emphasized that the diseases induced by obeahs resulted from "depraved imagination, or a powerful excitement or depression of the mental faculties."

Word Forms

• obeahs
• obe
• obea
• obeahing
• obeahed

Synonyms for obeah

Depending on context, synonyms include mage, shaman, spellcaster, archmage, archmagician, bewitcher.

Related Words

Related dictionary entries include obi, voodoo, voodooism, sorcery, goozoo, pocomania.

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