sive, noncommittal; vacillating, fluctuating, going back and forth, blowing hot and cold, sitting on or straddling the fence; off-again on-again, wavering, of mixed feelings; unsettled, uncertain, undecided, of two minds; edging, mealy-mouthed, weasel-worded; spineless, milquetoast, weak-kneed, white-livered. wistful, adj. 1. melancholy, yearning, longing, desirous, wishful; sorrowful, sad, heartsick, forlorn, woeful, woebegone, disconsolate, dismal, triste; sulky, moody, gloomy, glum, somber, sullen; dispirited, cheerless, joyless.
2. pensive, dreaming, dreamy, dreamful, in a reverie; daydreaming, in a trance, absent-minded; thoughtful, thinking, absorbed, immersed, engrossed, lost in thought, preoccupied, bemused, Archaic, museful; contemplative, contemplating, introspective, meditative, meditating, musing, pondering, reflective; ruminative, ruminant, ruminating, brooding, serious, in a brown study. wit', n. 1. humor, facetiousness, drollery, funniness, wittiness, cleverness, piquancy, quickness; jocularity, waggishness.
2. badinage, persiflage, repartee, quip, wisecrack, saying, sarcasm; irony, satire, burlesque, parody, caricature, travesty; witticism, Atticism, bon mot, jest, jocosity, joke; pun, wordplay, play on words, spoonerism, double entendre; raillery, banter, joshing; buffoonery, playfulness.
3. humorist, lampoonist, parodist; jokester, joker, comic, comedian, comedienne, slapstick artist, Fr. farceur, droll fellow, funny person, Both Inf card, character; wag, reparteeist, banterer, Inf. wisecracker, punster; zany, madcap, Inf. cutup, antic; mummer, mimer, mimic.
4. intelligence, brains, braininess, SI. smarts; sagacity, sageness, wisdom, sapience, sapiency; acumen, discernment, perspicacity, penetration; perception, percipience, insight; astuteness, shrewdness, savvy, keenness, long-headedness, hard-headedness, common sense; ingenuity, cleverness, aptness, quickness; brilliance, acuity, sharpness. wit², to wit namely, Latin, videlicit, viz.; that is to say, that is, Latin, id est, i.e.; specifically, explicitly, scilicet; for example, for instance, as a case in point, as an illustration. witch, n. 1. sorceress, hex, enchantress, Archaic. wight, Circe; dowser, diviner, pythoness, sibyl; prophetess, soothsayer, fortuneteller, seer, clairvoyant, medium.
2. hag, crone, beldam, SI. old bat; fury, battle-ax, fishwife, gorgon, harridan, ogress; hellcat, harpy, shrew, virago, vixen, nag, SI. bitch, Xanthippe. witchcraft, n. 1. sorcery, magic, sortilege; necromancy, black magic, black art, thaumaturgy, theurgy, wonder-working, wizardry; voodoo, hoodoo, obi; deviltry, demonolatry, diabolism, Satanism; supernaturalism, shamanism, psychomancy, occultism, spiritualism; apotropaism, fetishism, magical ceremony, incantation, conjuration.
2. magical influence, witchery, spell, hex; fascination, charm, allure, enticement, captivation; enchantment, entrancement, enravishment; appeal, attraction, draw, pull, magnetism. withdraw, v. 1. draw back or in, pull back or in, retract, abduce, Physiol, abduct, Dentistry, retrude; shrink back, recoil, start; take back, take off, recall; remove, subtract; move back, retire, recede, ebb, retrocede.
2. recant, disavow, unsay, disclaim, Inf. eat or swallow one's words; renege, back down or out of, bow out, bail out, pull out of, Inf. back away from or off on, Inf. cop out, SI. fink out; back-pedal, shift one's ground, Inf. flip-flop, about-face, do an about-face, change one's mind, tergiversate; apostatize, defect.