incant
/ɪnˈkant
/verb [with object]
Chant or intone: priests were incanting psalms round her body...
- Now at one-fifteen pm, Glyn advanced purposefully on the PC, opened his BIG BLACK BAG and, incanting the magical chant, ‘This should be pretty simple’ began to perform an operation of electronic surgery with both guile and dexterity.
- Thomas' words - particularly as incanted by Burton, who was born to read them - make your whole body tingle.
- As he shinned down the final tree, he stopped to lay his head against its trunk and incant thanks to the spirit within for sharing its bounty with him.
Origin
Mid 16th century (in the sense 'use enchantment on'): from Latin incantare 'to chant, charm', from in- (expressing intensive force) + cantare 'sing'. The current sense dates from the mid 20th century.