'Witches' butter' definitions:

Definition of 'witches' butter'

From: WordNet
noun
A yellow jelly fungus [syn: witches' butter, Tremella lutescens]

Definition of 'Witches' butter'

From: GCIDE
  • Witch \Witch\, n. [OE. wicche, AS. wicce, fem., wicca, masc.; perhaps the same word as AS. w[imac]tiga, w[imac]tga, a soothsayer (cf. Wiseacre); cf. Fries. wikke, a witch, LG. wikken to predict, Icel. vitki a wizard, vitka to bewitch.] [1913 Webster]
  • 1. One who practices the black art, or magic; one regarded as possessing supernatural or magical power by compact with an evil spirit, esp. with the Devil; a sorcerer or sorceress; -- now applied chiefly or only to women, but formerly used of men as well. [1913 Webster]
  • There was a man in that city whose name was Simon, a witch. --Wyclif (Acts viii. 9). [1913 Webster]
  • He can not abide the old woman of Brentford; he swears she's a witch. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 2. An ugly old woman; a hag. --Shak. [1913 Webster]
  • 3. One who exercises more than common power of attraction; a charming or bewitching person; also, one given to mischief; -- said especially of a woman or child. [Colloq.] [1913 Webster]
  • 4. (Geom.) A certain curve of the third order, described by Maria Agnesi under the name versiera. [1913 Webster]
  • 5. (Zool.) The stormy petrel. [1913 Webster]
  • 6. A Wiccan; an adherent or practitioner of Wicca, a religion which in different forms may be paganistic and nature-oriented, or ditheistic. The term witch applies to both male and female adherents in this sense. [PJC]
  • Witch balls, a name applied to the interwoven rolling masses of the stems of herbs, which are driven by the winds over the steppes of Tartary. Cf. Tumbleweed. --Maunder (Treas. of Bot.)
  • Witches' besoms (Bot.), tufted and distorted branches of the silver fir, caused by the attack of some fungus. --Maunder (Treas. of Bot.)
  • Witches' butter (Bot.), a name of several gelatinous cryptogamous plants, as Nostoc commune, and {Exidia glandulosa}. See Nostoc.
  • Witch grass (Bot.), a kind of grass (Panicum capillare) with minute spikelets on long, slender pedicels forming a light, open panicle.
  • Witch meal (Bot.), vegetable sulphur. See under Vegetable. [1913 Webster]

Definition of 'witches' butter'

From: GCIDE
  • Nostoc \Nos"toc\, prop. n. [F.] (Bot.) A genus of algae. The plants are composed of moniliform cells imbedded in a gelatinous substance. [1913 Webster]
  • Note: Nostoc commune is found on the ground, and is ordinarily not seen; but after a rain it swells up into a conspicuous jellylike mass, which was formerly supposed to have fallen from the sky, whence the popular names, fallen star and star jelly. Also called witches' butter. [1913 Webster]