The Irish at one time believed that their children and cattle could be “eybitten,” that is, bewitched by an evil eye, and that the “eybitter,” or witch could “rime” them to death. (R. Scott: Discovery of Witch-craft.) (See Rats.)
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Entry taken from Dictionary of Phrase and Fable, edited by the Rev. E. Cobham Brewer, LL.D. and revised in 1895.