English
wight
see also: Wight
Pronunciation Noun

wight (plural wights)

  1. (archaic) A living creature, especially a human being.
    • circa 1602, William Shakespeare, The Merry Wives of Windsor, act 1, scene 3:
      O base Hungarian wight! wilt thou the spigot wield?
    • 1626, John Milton, On the Death of a Fair Infant Dying of a Cough, verse vi
      Oh say me true if thou wert mortal wight
      And why from us so quickly thou didst take thy flight.
    • 1885, Richard F. Burton, The Supplemental Nights to the Thousand Nights and a Night, Night 532:
      […] Alaeddin ate and drank and was cheered and after he had rested and had recovered spirits he cried, "Ah, O my mother, I have a sore grievance against thee for leaving me to that accursed wight who strave to compass my destruction and designed to take my life. Know that I beheld Death with mine own eyes at the hand of this damned wretch, whom thou didst certify to be my uncle; […]
  2. (paganism) A being of one of the Nine Worlds of Heathen belief, especially a nature spirit, elf or ancestor.
  3. (poetic) A ghost, deity or other supernatural entity.
    • 1789, William Blake, A Dream, lines 14-16:
      But I saw a glow-worm near, / Who replied: ‘What wailing wight / Calls the watchman of the night?
    • 1869, William Morris and Eiríkr Magnússon (translators), Grettis Saga: The Story of Grettir the Strong, F. S. Ellis, page 49:
      Everything in their way was kicked out of place, the barrow-wight setting on with hideous eagerness; Grettir gave back before him for a long time, till at last it came to this, that he saw it would not do to hoard his strength any more; now neither spared the other, and they were brought to where the horse-bones were, and thereabout they wrestled long.
  4. (fantasy) A wraith-like creature.
Translations
  • Russian: существо́
Adjective
  1. (archaic, except in dialects) Brave, valorous, strong.
    • 1485, Sir Thomas Malory, [http://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/MaloryWks2/1:20.9?rgn=div2;view=fulltext chapter ix], in Le Morte Darthur, book XVIII:
      I haue two sones that were but late made knyghtes / and the eldest hyghte sir Tirre / […] / and my yongest sone hyght Lauayne / and yf hit please yow / he shalle ryde with yow vnto that Iustes / and he is of his age x stronge and wyght
  2. (UK dialectal, obsolete) Strong; stout; active.
Wight
Proper noun
  1. The Isle of Wight.
  2. A sea area comprising part of the English Channel, from the southern English coast down to Normandy
  3. Surname


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