A person, especially a man, who uses magic; a wizard

📝 In the old ballad, an enchanter turned the prince into a swan.

📖 Ho-Ho was a proper enchanter, respected throughout Pixie Land for the strength and cleverness of his spells.

A set of magic words spoken to bring about a spell

📝 The witch began to whisper a slow, curling incantation over the cauldron.

📖 Ho-Ho stood over the bubbling pot and repeated a long incantation that made the candles turn a strange, pale green.

A large metal pot used for cooking or making potions

📝 The three witches stirred their bubbling cauldron in the moonlight.

📖 The cauldron in Ho-Ho's cottage was so vast that Peter could have curled up inside it if he had wanted to.

To make or invent something by mixing parts together

📝 My little brother likes to concoct wild sandwiches from whatever is in the fridge.

📖 Ho-Ho was busy concocting a potion that would allow the drinker to understand every animal in the world.

A magical or medicinal liquid believed to have special powers

📝 The old stories are full of quests for a healing elixir.

📖 Peter longed to taste even one drop of the elixir, but Chinky whispered a warning: a single sip could turn him into a pig.

To speak or say something in a low, soft voice

📝 The parents began to murmur to one another so as not to wake the baby.

📖 Ho-Ho continued to murmur over his cauldron, adding a leaf here and a pinch of dust there, quite lost in his work.

To shine with a soft, shimmering light, especially from wetness

📝 The dew on the spider's web began to glisten in the early sun.

📖 Ho-Ho's eyes began to glisten with delight when he saw that his three visitors had arrived on an actual wishing-chair.

Kind and generous; wishing to do good to others

📝 The benevolent old baker gave away every unsold loaf to the shelter.

📖 Ho-Ho turned out to be a benevolent enchanter, and he offered the children star-shaped biscuits and hot cocoa.

Very clever, original, and inventive

📝 The little robot was an ingenious birthday present from her uncle.

📖 The cottage was crammed with ingenious inventions — a self-stirring spoon, a talking clock, a broomstick that swept the floor on its own.

To give something valuable to someone to look after

📝 She would only entrust the antique key to her most careful friend.

📖 Chinky was uneasy about being asked to entrust the wishing-chair to a stranger, even one as jolly as Ho-Ho.

To make a serious promise

📝 The scouts had to pledge to look after the environment.

📖 Ho-Ho was made to pledge, three times over, that he would return the wishing-chair long before the first star appeared in the sky.

To burn slowly with smoke but without flame

📝 The camp-fire began to smoulder quietly through the night.

📖 The fire beneath the cauldron did not blaze — it seemed to smoulder patiently, letting the elixir simmer at its own strange pace.