"And in the cottage in the clearing there lived a wicked witch."
This quote, or one very much like it, can be found in hundreds of places. A lot of those places are Fairy Tales. When confronting a fairy tale witch you can, via the magic of Beauty Equals Goodness often tell the good from the bad. The Wicked Witch check list is as follows (have more than about four of these and you have yourself a bad one):
Which is odd really seeing as, apart from 10, 12, 14 and 15 these may just as well describe someone's granny in a pre-industrial society. 12 could work too, if you interpret preparing folk remedies the right way (this sadly contributed to the large number of women burnt as witches over the centuries) 15 could also work depending on how you define "cursing". Good witches tend to be young and pretty or at least have aged gracefully. If your subject is nice to look at but evil you may well have a Vain Sorceress instead.
Perhaps because most bards were male back then, wizards get better press, seeming to get more "good" and sage-like with age. But then again, there was a time when "witch" literally meant "person who received magical power from the devil", which would make a non-evil witch an oxymoron. If a non-evil female magic user appeared in folklore, she'd be referred to with a term like "sorceress" or "fairy godmother" instead.
She's an "earthy" version of the Evil Sorcerer (but obviously not Closer to Earth), and might also come in Hollywood Voodoo flavor. It's likely that every witch in existence will be this trope in a setting where Magic is Evil. There might also be some overlap with the Wicked Stepmother and the Evil Matriarch; however, royalty tends to be beautiful.
In settings tending more towards Magic Realism than typical fantasy worlds, their magical powers will be downplayed, but their prophecies will have a bad habit of coming horribly true, especially if they get insulted or snubbed.
Usually uses Black Magic. Compare Cute Witch, Hot Witch, Widow Witch and Vain Sorceress. See also Witch Species.
Examples
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Anime and Manga
Yubaba from Spirited Away, but not her sister, who just looks like one
Sailor Moon had Beryl, Zoisite, Emerald, Nehellenia, Badiane, Kaguya... just to name a few.
Not to mention the Witches 5...
Go Lion, known as Voltron in America has Honerva/Haggar, an alien witch complete with an cat.
Revolutionary Girl Utena intentionally subverts the Wicked Witch archetype with Anthy, who is a witch who acts like a princess. She is victimized by her brother, a prince who acts like a witch, and she eventually falls in love with Utena, a princess who acts like a prince.
Comic Books
Frau Totenkinder in Fables is any unnamed Wicked Witch in fairy tales. She's been shown specifically to have been the Wicked Witch in "Rapunzel," "Beauty and the Beast," "The Frog Prince," and "Hansel and Gretel," but she got better after the oven incident.
Totenkinder is actually a bit of a subversion because shes not actually evil, just self-servingly neutral, and only looks the way she does by choice.
Another partial monkeywrench is the Prarie Witch, a forties-era villain created by James Robinson in Starman. She's leggy and sexy and doesn't actually practice magic, but she's got the green skin, hat, and flying broom.
Most of the stories that Little Lulu tells to Alvin feature an evil witch named Witch Hazel (No, not that Witch Hazel), and her niece (also a witch) named Little Itch.
In Brother and Sister the Wicked Stepmother not only drives off the title characters with her cruelty, but, being a witch, tries to enchant them into animal forms (and succeeds with Brother). She also murders Sister after her marriage and replace her with her own daughter.
In Esben and the Witch, when Esben and his brothers stay at the witch's, she tries to murder them in their sleep. Fortunately, Esben shifted around the nightcaps so she murdered her own daughters instead; then, when they go to the king, he proceeds to rob her of her treasures one by one.
In The Old Witch, the two girls go into service for the old witch; one, by being friendly to things she meets on the way, succeeds in tricking her out of gold, but the other fails.
In The Witch, the Wicked Stepmother intentionally sends her children to a Wicked Witch, who tries to set them Impossible Tasks; through the advice of their grandmother and kindness to the objects about her house, they escape.
The Witch In The Stone Boat kidnapped a princess, taking her form and place, and sending her to her brother as a bride, but the princess's son knew she was not his mother, and the true princess came back three times, and the third time, the prince managed to free her.
In Puddocky, when the girl steals parsley from the witch, the witch has her come work for her, and eat all the parsley she likes, but when young men start to quarrel because of her beauty, she turns the girl into a toad.
In Prunella, Prunella is a Wicked Witch's prisoner, because she had taken fruit from the witch's tree, and she assigns Impossible Tasks; only with the help of the witch's son does she survive.
The titular characters in Hansel And Gretel, end up lost in the woods, and find their way to a house (made of cake and bread), which is owned by a wicked witch, who's also a cannibal.
Well, it's actually sort of questionable what she is; the word fairy is never applied to her within the movie itself, and she seems to be closer to a demon than a fairy (fairies don't tend to invoke the powers of hell, as they come from a different mythology entirely).
Ursula from The Little Mermaid (also a member of a fairy race, but is considered a wicked witch to merfolk)
Queen Grimhilde from Snow White counts too, although interestingly she was originally a Hot WitchVain Sorceress who put on the whole 'hook-nosed woman' look as a disguise.
Mother Gothel from Tangledmight count - we're not entirely sure she's a witch.
Voodoo fortuneteller Elzora from Eve's Bayou. The movie taking place in relatively recent times, she's aware of the imagery and seems to enjoy playing it up as part of her fortuneteller act, and gets cheap laughs from scaring children.
The Big Bad of Suspiria Helena Markos, the Witch of Sighs. She's very old, has wrinkled skin, cackles, and eats people.
Hydia and her two daughters Reeka and Draggle from My Little PonyThe Movie, although Reeka and Draggle are rather incompetent at it.
Literature
In John Barnes's One for the Morning Glory, witches, with the rarest of exceptions, fully look the part.
Countless reviews and analyses of The Film of the Book have said that, pound-for-pound, The Wicked Witch of the West is overall the hands-down most evil character to have ever been portrayed in film.
The sequel The Marvelous Land of Oz introduced Mombi, the mildly wicked witch who brought Jack Pumpkinhead to life with her Powder of Life. Later in the series, in the Thompson novels, Mombi becomes a full-fledged Wicked Witch, the former Wicked Witch of the North.
Gregory Maguire's novel Wicked is a revisionist look at the characters and the land of Oz. The story centers on a green girl named Elphaba who grows up to be the Wicked Witch of the West. Over the course of the book, Elphaba gradually acquires the stereotypical attributes of this trope (except the ugliness).
Discworld witches are a monkeywrench, they deliberately look the part but are generally benevolent acting as doctor, judge, defence against supernatural threats and generally keeping the community in order. However, that doesn't always mean they're nice.
In fact, Granny Weatherwax is rather disappointed that she has perfect teeth and an unblemished, rosy complexion. However, she refuses to admit that she ever cackles.
We also get the occasion played straight (Black Allis, a frequently mentioned example of what happens when witches go bad) and inverted (Lilly Weatherwax, an evil fairy godmother)
The unfortunate results of using the traits of old women to "identify" witches is also deconstructed from time to time, especially in the Tiffany Aching novels (where an old women's death because of this inspires Tiffany to become a witch).
Completely averted by Morwen in the Enchanted Forest Chronicles. She is a witch, and still practices magic, owns a dozen or so cats, and wears black robes, but is also very practical, sensible, friendly, and attractive in a motherly way.
Also parodied with her colleague Archaniz, who looks and acts the part down to the poisonous garden... because she's the Chairwitch of the Deadly Nightshade Gardening Club. She also grows ordinary daisies in the garden and worries about witches getting a reputation for being too kind and helpful and thus getting swamped by people asking for assistance.
The utterly psychotic Witch Sisters, Morag and Mallenroh of Terry Brooks' The Elfstones Of Shannara. Beautiful, cold, and utterly evil, they've turned the Wilderun into a High Octane Nightmare Fuel-filled disaster, and spent several thousand years warring with one another and kidnapping/murdering anyone who gets in between them. The Ilse Witch of The Voyage Of The Jerle Shannara is a more sympatheticversion who was, coincidentally, raised by Morag and Mallenroh's brother, The Morgawr.
In The Witcher series women with talent for magic but no money for sorceress' training tend to end up getting the reputation, if not always the personality of a Wicked Witch.
The fact that old spinster Doņa Clotilde presents almost all the characteristics listed above except the obvious magic powers becomes a Running Gag in El Chavo del ocho.
Another Krofft example (as well as a male example) is Hoodoo from Lids Ville, who is an evil magician who rides a flying hat.
Which is Lampshaded in one episode where the two end up meeting through a dating service. It was up to the heroes to break up the relationship.
Amy's mom in an early Buffy the Vampire Slayer episode, "The Witch" may not physically resemble the classic witch archetype, but she was certainly wicked(bodyswapping with Amy to relive her youth). Later seasons proved that Amy was also leaning toward the wicked side. Then there's Willow at the end of Season Six...
Subverted and lampshaded in the Charmed episode "All Halliwell's Eve", when Prue, Piper and Phoebe prepare for a Halloween party dressed as a wicked witch, Glinda and Elvira respectively, and Phoebe comments on Prue's costume;
Phoebe: Hook-nosed hags riding broomsticks - that's what we're celebrating. Personally I am offended by the representation of witches in popular culture
Prue: Which is why you're dressed as mistress of the dark?
Phoebe: This costume happens to be a protest statement.
Prue: I am so impressed that you can make a protest statement and show cleavage all at the same time.
The plotline for that episode involves the Halliwell sisters being sent to 17th century Salem to protect one of their ancestors. To ward off a mob, Phoebe uses her levitation powers to fly toward them while seemingly riding a broomstick. As she told her sisters, "I'm embracing the cliche."
The Witch of Barcelona, Enriqueta Marti, who kidnapped, killed, and ate children in pre-WW 1 Spain.
Leonarda Cianciulli, who killed three women, turned their body fat into soap (in one case giving it to her neighbours) and used their blood as an ingredient for cakes, which were eaten by her friends, her son and herself. Not only was she a firm believer in divination and magic, but she admitted her victims were human sacrifices offered for the protection of her son.
Tabletop Games
In Witch Girls Adventures, there's a condition called Hag's Syndrome that makes the setting's Hot Witches and Cute Witches look as close to the part as they can — when their powers first manifest, their skin and hair turn green and their eyes red — and, in a Shout Out to The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, water melts their skin. Actually a subversion, as a witch that has this isn't necessarily wicked — their spells are more powerful than other witches, but it's entirely possible for a good witch to have the condition.
The Witch class in Pathfindercan be this sort of witch, if they want.
The "Hag" monster type in both Pathfinder and D&D is basically a Wicked Witch as a monster type - an evil, magic-using, Always Female man-eating monster that resembles a hideous old woman.
Likewise Heroes of the Feywild introduces a Witch class to 4th Edition. While they can be as good or evil as any class, they were the first true magic users, and the gods still have a vendetta against them. As such they tend to be viewed as this trope and act in secret.
Theater
The Witch in Into the Woods is a subversion of sorts: her evil deeds happened in the backstory and during the story itself she does more to help the protagonists than hinder them. They blame her nevertheless.
Elphaba, the witch in Wicked, is...well, exactly what you'd expect. Exceptnot.
Mother Hare in The Golden Apple is treated as this at least symbolically. (At one point, another character mockingly tells her, "Go home and ride your broomstick!") She's an Affably Evil old clairvoyant who avows that Good Is Dumb and creates the titular Apple of Discord.
Partially monkeywrenched in newer Castlevania games. Some of the most annoying generic enemies are witches, but they're all rather attractive and young looking. They still dress the part though, and fly around on brooms. Subverted entirely by the Belnades family, a clan of witches who have assisted the Belmont clan in destroying Dracula many times.
Circle Of The Moon plays this straight as opposed to the cute/hot witches in later games.
And then played completely straight with Baba Yaga herself, in Lords of Shadow. Sure, she's helping you, but she quite clearly put Gabriel in a Death Trap music box for her own amusement, and is responsible for driving Malphas to insanity. She would have become young and presumably beautiful (the Death Trap contained a blue rose she needed for a youth potion), had Zobek not killed her offscreen (when he realized she was working for Satan).
The Legend of Zelda has Koume and Kotake. Their combined form, Twinrova, is young and pretty, though.
Subverted in Majora's Mask — unlike their counterparts in the main Zelda universe, Termina's Koume and Kotake are kindly and helpful (though still hideous) crones, rather than wicked witches.
All witches in Aveyond. Except once where two feuding witches repeatedly curse each other and one "curses" the other with unending beauty. She's still quite evil, though.
Witches appear as enemies in Skyrim, but Hagravens fit the typical description better and pack deadly explosive fire magic. Hagravens are frequently seen leading covens of Witches, and most Witches ultimately plan to become Hagravens.
Web Comics
Both Red and Clare are called witches in No Rest For the Wicked. There is a real witch as well, but she's as tragic as she is scary.
In Sluggy Freelance, Lady Noga is a classic Wicked Witch (while also being a Space Pirate captain). She is very reminiscent of Baba Yaga in both her appearance, Slavic accent, and her love for eating children.
In Homestuck, "witch" is one of the titles that stays with the Troll Empress, even in other universes. This is in direct contrast with Feferi, her descendant, and Jade, her great-granddaughter by adoption, both of whom are CuteWitches.
Western Animation
A Wicked Witch called Witch Hazel appeared in the Classic Disney ShortTrick or Treat where she helps Huey, Dewey and Louie get candy from Donald Duck. She later appeared in a variety of Disney Comics.
A different Witch Hazel appears in a number of Looney Tunes shorts, starting with Bewitched Bunny.
Both Witch Hazels were voiced by June Foray, who also played assorted witches(usually with the same voice) in the "Fractured Fairy Tales" segments in Rocky and Bullwinkle.
Marge and her sisters appear as Wicked Witches in The Simpsons in the "Easy-Bake Coven" segment of "Treehouse of Horror VIII".]
The little-known cartoon, The New Misadventures of Ichabod Crane featured a witch named Velma Van Damme, who was apparently responsible for the headless horseman that terrorized the folks of Sleepy Hollow.
