(n.) That which is vain; anything empty, visionary, unreal, or unsubstantial; fruitless desire or effort; trifling labor productive of no good; empty pleasure; vain pursuit; idle show; unsubstantial enjoyment.

(n.) One of the established characters in the old moralities and puppet shows. See Morality, n., 5.

(n.) A machine for concentrating ore. See Frue vanner.

(a.) Full of vapors; vaporous.

(a.) Hypochondriacal; splenetic; peevish.

(a.) Changed; altered; various; diversified; as, a varied experience; varied interests; varied scenery.

(n.) A wanderer; one who strays in search of variety.

(v. t.) To make different; to vary; to variegate.

(n.) A servant, especially to a knight; an attendant; a valet; a footman.

(n.) Hence, a low fellow; a scoundrel; a rascal; as, an impudent varlet.

(n.) In a pack of playing cards, the court card now called the knave, or jack.

(n.) In falconry, one of the rings secured to the ends of the jesses.

(imp. & p. p.) of Vary

(n.) The grantee of a fief, feud, or fee; one who holds land of superior, and who vows fidelity and homage to him; a feudatory; a feudal tenant.

(n.) A subject; a dependent; a servant; a slave.

(a.) Resembling a vassal; slavish; servile.

(v. t.) To treat as a vassal; to subject to control; to enslave.

(adv.) To a vast extent or degree; very greatly; immensely.

(imp. & p. p.) of Vat

(n.) As much as a vat will hold; enough to fill a vat.

(a.) Arched; concave.

(v. i.) To advance.

(n.) The fore part; van.

(n.) Same as Radius vector.

(n.) A directed quantity, as a straight line, a force, or a velocity. Vectors are said to be equal when their directions are the same their magnitudes equal. Cf. Scalar.

(imp. & p. p.) of Veer

(a.) Lively; active; sprightly; vigorous.

(imp. & p. p.) of Veil

(a.) Covered by, or as by, a veil; hidden.

(imp. & p. p.) of Vein

(a.) Pertaining to veins; venous.

(a.) Full of veins; streaked; variegated; as, veined marble.

(a.) Having fibrovascular threads extending throughout the lamina; as, a veined leaf.

(a.) Having a veil; veiled.

(n.) A word occurring in the phrase real vellon. See the Note under Its Real.

(n.) A fine kind of parchment, usually made from calfskin, and rendered clear and white, -- used as for writing upon, and for binding books.

(n.) Velvet.

(N.) The pudu.

(imp. & p. p.) of Vend

(n.) One who vends; one who transfers the exclusive right of possessing a thing, either his own, or that of another as his agent, for a price or pecuniary equivalent; a seller; a vendor.

(n.) A vender; a seller; the correlative of vendee.

(n.) A public sale of anything, by outcry, to the highest bidder; an auction.

(v. t.) To overlay or plate with a thin layer of wood or other material for outer finish or decoration; as, to veneer a piece of furniture with mahogany. Used also figuratively.

(v. t.) A thin leaf or layer of a more valuable or beautiful material for overlaying an inferior one, especially such a thin leaf of wood to be glued to a cheaper wood; hence, external show; gloss; false pretense.

(a.) Poisonous; venomous.

(n.) Sexual love; sexual intercourse; coition.

(n.) The art, act, or practice of hunting; the sports of the chase.

(n.) An avenger.

(a.) Capable of being forgiven; not heinous; excusable; pardonable; as, a venial fault or transgression.

(a.) Allowed; permitted.

(a.) Having numerous or conspicuous veins; veiny; as, a venose frond.

(a.) Of or pertaining to a vein or veins; as, the venous circulation of the blood.

(a.) Contained in the veins, or having the same qualities as if contained in the veins, that is, having a dark bluish color and containing an insufficient amount of oxygen so as no longer to be fit for oxygenating the tissues; -- said of the blood, and opposed to arterial.

(a.) Marked with veins; veined; as, a venous leaf.

(imp. & p. p.) of Vent

(n.) One who vents; one who utters, reports, or publishes.

(n.) The belly; the abdomen; -- sometimes applied to any large cavity containing viscera.

(n.) The uterus, or womb.

(n.) A belly, or protuberant part; a broad surface; as, the venter of a muscle; the venter, or anterior surface, of the scapula.

(n.) The lower part of the abdomen in insects.

(n.) A pregnant woman; a mother; as, A has a son B by one venter, and a daughter C by another venter; children by different venters.

(n.) A small vein; a veinlet; specifically (Zool.), one of the small branches of the veins of the wings in insects.

(a.) Beautiful.

(a.) Expressed in words, whether spoken or written, but commonly in spoken words; hence, spoken; oral; not written; as, a verbal contract; verbal testimony.

(a.) Consisting in, or having to do with, words only; dealing with words rather than with the ideas intended to be conveyed; as, a verbal critic; a verbal change.

(a.) Having word answering to word; word for word; literal; as, a verbal translation.

(a.) Abounding with words; verbose.

(a.) Of or pertaining to a verb; as, a verbal group; derived directly from a verb; as, a verbal noun; used in forming verbs; as, a verbal prefix.

(n.) A noun derived from a verb.

(v. t.) To make into a verb; to use as a verb; to verbalize.

(a.) Deprived of contents; not filled; empty; as, a vacant room.

(a.) Unengaged with business or care; unemployed; unoccupied; disengaged; free; as, vacant hours.

(a.) Not filled or occupied by an incumbent, possessor, or officer; as, a vacant throne; a vacant parish.

(a.) Empty of thought; thoughtless; not occupied with study or reflection; as, a vacant mind.

(a.) Abandoned; having no heir, possessor, claimant, or occupier; as, a vacant estate.

(v. t.) To make vacant; to leave empty; to cease from filling or occupying; as, it was resolved by Parliament that James had vacated the throne of England; the tenant vacated the house.

(v. t.) To annul; to make void; to deprive of force; to make of no authority or validity; as, to vacate a commission or a charter; to vacate proceedings in a cause.

(v. t.) To defeat; to put an end to.

(n.) A space entirely devoid of matter (called also, by way of distinction, absolute vacuum); hence, in a more general sense, a space, as the interior of a closed vessel, which has been exhausted to a high or the highest degree by an air pump or other artificial means; as, water boils at a reduced temperature in a vacuum.

(n.) The condition of rarefaction, or reduction of pressure below that of the atmosphere, in a vessel, as the condenser of a steam engine, which is nearly exhausted of air or steam, etc.; as, a vacuum of 26 inches of mercury, or 13 pounds per square inch.

(n.) Pledge; security; bail. See Mortgage.

(n.) A wandering or strolling.

(n.) Hence, a wandering of the thoughts; a wild or fanciful freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose.

(n.) A sheath; a theca; as, the vagina of the portal vein.

(n.) Specifically, the canal which leads from the uterus to the external orifice if the genital canal, or to the cloaca.

(n.) The terminal part of the oviduct in insects and various other invertebrates. See Illust., of Spermatheca.

(n.) The basal expansion of certain leaves, which inwraps the stem; a sheath.

(n.) The shaft of a terminus, from which the bust of figure seems to issue or arise.

(a.) Wandering; unsettled.

(adv.) In a vain manner; in vain.

(n.) A native attorney or agent; also, an ambassador.

(n.) A small sack or case, usually of leather, but sometimes of other material, for containing the clothes, toilet articles, etc., of a traveler; a traveling bag; a portmanteau.

(a.) Of or pertaining to a rampart.

(n.) A vallar crown.

(n.) A rampart; a wall, as in a fortification.

(imp. & p. p.) of Value

(a.) Highly regarded; esteemed; prized; as, a valued contributor; a valued friend.

(n.) One who values; an appraiser.

(n.) Value.

(a.) Having a valve or valve; valvate.

(v. i. & t.) To depart quickly; to depart from.

(imp. & p. p.) of Vamp

(n.) One who vamps; one who pieces an old thing with something new; a cobbler.

(v. i.) To swagger; to make an ostentatious show.

(n.) See Vauntmure.

(n.) Benne (Sesamum orientale); also, its seeds; -- so called in the West Indies.

(v. i.) To pass from a visible to an invisible state; to go out of sight; to disappear; to fade; as, vapor vanishes from the sight by being dissipated; a ship vanishes from the sight of spectators on land.

(v. i.) To be annihilated or lost; to pass away.

(n.) The brief terminal part of vowel or vocal element, differing more or less in quality from the main part; as, a as in ale ordinarily ends with a vanish of i as in ill, o as in old with a vanish of oo as in foot.

(n.) The quality or state of being vain; want of substance to satisfy desire; emptiness; unsubstantialness; unrealness; falsity.

(n.) An inflation of mind upon slight grounds; empty pride inspired by an overweening conceit of one's personal attainments or decorations; an excessive desire for notice or approval; pride; ostentation; conceit.

(n.) A small yellow-headed bird (Auriparus flaviceps) of Lower California, allied to the titmice; -- called also goldtit.

(a.) Charged with leaves, fruits, flowers, etc.; -- said of a border.

(imp. & p. p.) of Verge

(v. t.) To prove to be true or correct; to establish the truth of; to confirm; to substantiate.

(v. t.) To confirm or establish the authenticity of by examination or competent evidence; to authenciate; as, to verify a written statement; to verify an account, a pleading, or the like.

(v. t.) To maintain; to affirm; to support.

(adv.) In very truth; beyond doubt or question; in fact; certainly.

(n.) See Vermeil.

(n. sing. & pl.) An animal, in general.

(n. sing. & pl.) A noxious or mischievous animal; especially, noxious little animals or insects, collectively, as squirrels, rats, mice, flies, lice, bugs, etc.

(n. sing. & pl.) Hence, in contempt, noxious human beings.

(a.) Very; true.

(n.) See Ferrule.

(a.) Universal.

(imp. & p. p.) of Verse

(a.) Acquainted or familiar, as the result of experience, study, practice, etc.; skilled; practiced.

(a.) Turned.

(n.) A versifier.

(n.) A verse.

(n.) The turning factor of a quaternion.

(prep.) Against; as, John Doe versus Richard Roe; -- chiefly used in legal language, and abbreviated to v. or vs.

(n.) A turning point; the principal or highest point; top; summit; crown; apex.

(n.) The top, or crown, of the head.

(n.) The zenith, or the point of the heavens directly overhead.

(n.) The point in any figure opposite to, and farthest from, the base; the terminating point of some particular line or lines in a figure or a curve; the top, or the point opposite the base.

(n.) See Varvel.

(n.) A South African monkey (Cercopithecus pygerythrus, / Lelandii). The upper parts are grayish green, finely specked with black. The cheeks and belly are reddish white.

(n.) A bladder.

(n.) A hollow or concave utensil for holding anything; a hollow receptacle of any kind, as a hogshead, a barrel, a firkin, a bottle, a kettle, a cup, a bowl, etc.

(n.) A general name for any hollow structure made to float upon the water for purposes of navigation; especially, one that is larger than a common rowboat; as, a war vessel; a passenger vessel.

(n.) Fig.: A person regarded as receiving or containing something; esp. (Script.), one into whom something is conceived as poured, or in whom something is stored for use; as, vessels of wrath or mercy.

(n.) Any tube or canal in which the blood or other fluids are contained, secreted, or circulated, as the arteries, veins, lymphatics, etc.

(n.) A continuous tube formed from superposed large cylindrical or prismatic cells (tracheae), which have lost their intervening partitions, and are usually marked with dots, pits, rings, or spirals by internal deposition of secondary membranes; a duct.

(v. t.) To put into a vessel.

(n.) Alt. of Vessets

(imp. & p. p.) of Vest

(a.) Of or pertaining to Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth; hence, pure; chaste.

(a.) A virgin consecrated to Vesta, and to the service of watching the sacred fire, which was to be perpetually kept burning upon her altar.

(a.) A virgin; a woman pure and chaste; also, a nun.

(a.) Clothed; robed; wearing vestments.

(a.) Not in a state of contingency or suspension; fixed; as, vested rights; vested interests.

(n.) A room appendant to a church, in which sacerdotal vestments and sacred utensils are sometimes kept, and where meetings for worship or parish business are held; a sacristy; -- formerly called revestiary.

(n.) A parochial assembly; an assembly of persons who manage parochial affairs; -- so called because usually held in a vestry.

(n.) A body, composed of wardens and vestrymen, chosen annually by a parish to manage its temporal concerns.

(a.) Consisting of vetches or of pea straw.

(a.) Abounding with vetches.

(pl. ) of Veto

(imp. & p. p.) of Veto

(a.) Venerable from antiquity; ancient; old.

(p. pr. & vb. n.) of Vex

(a.) Capable of living; born alive and with such form and development of organs as to be capable of living; -- said of a newborn, or a prematurely born, infant.

(imp. & p. p.) of Vial

(a.) Of or pertaining to a journey or traveling.

(n.) A vicar.

(p. pr. & vb. n.) of Vice

(n.) Fault; defect; coarseness.

(a.) Near; neighboring; vicinal.

(n.) An alkaloid ex tracted from the seeds of the vetch (Vicia sativa) as a white crystalline substance.

(n.) A living being sacrificed to some deity, or in the performance of a religious rite; a creature immolated, or made an offering of.

(n.) A person or thing destroyed or sacrificed in the pursuit of an object, or in gratification of a passion; as, a victim to jealousy, lust, or ambition.

(n.) A person or living creature destroyed by, or suffering grievous injury from, another, from fortune or from accident; as, the victim of a defaulter; the victim of a railroad accident.

(n.) Hence, one who is duped, or cheated; a dupe; a gull.

(n.) Food; diet.

(n.) One of a class of temporal officers who originally represented the bishops, but later erected their offices into fiefs, and became feudal nobles.

(a.) Of or pertaining to the state of a widow; widowed.

(n.) An old stringed instrument played upon with a wheel; a hurdy-gurdy.

(imp. & p. p.) of View

(n.) One who views or examines.

(n.) A person appointed to inspect highways, fences, or the like, and to report upon the same.

(n.) The superintendent of a coal mine.

(a.) Alt. of Viewsome

(v. t.) To make vile; to debase; to degrade; to disgrace.

(v. t.) To degrade or debase by report; to defame; to traduce; to calumniate.

(v. t.) To treat as vile; to despise.

(n.) Vileness; baseness.

(n.) A villain.

(n.) One of the minute papillary processes on certain vascular membranes; a villosity; as, villi cover the lining of the small intestines of many animals and serve to increase the absorbing surface.

(n.) Fine hairs on plants, resembling the pile of velvet.

(a.) Of or pertaining to vines; containing vines.

(n.) A vineyard.

(n.) A structure, usually inclosed with glass, for rearing and protecting vines; a grapery.

(a.) Vinous.

(a.) Of or pertaining to wine; having the qualities of wine; as, a vinous taste.

(n.) A place where wine is sold.

(n.) A small instrument with four strings, played with a bow; a fiddle.

(n.) A woman of extraordinary stature, strength, and courage; a woman who has the robust body and masculine mind of a man; a female warrior.

(n.) Hence, a mannish woman; a bold, turbulent woman; a termagant; a vixen.

(a.) Green; not withered.

(n.) See Verger.

(n.) A certain function relating to a system of forces and their points of application, -- first used by Clausius in the investigation of problems in molecular physics.

(a.) Having the nature, properties, or qualities, of an adult man; characteristic of developed manhood; hence, masterful; forceful; specifically, capable of begetting; -- opposed to womanly, feminine, and puerile; as, virile age, virile power, virile organs.

(n.) A ring surrounding a bugle or hunting horn.

(a.) Having a nauseous odor; fetid; poisonous.

(n.) Manly strength or courage; bravery; daring; spirit; valor.

(n.) Active quality or power; capacity or power adequate to the production of a given effect; energy; strength; potency; efficacy; as, the virtue of a medicine.

(n.) Energy or influence operating without contact of the material or sensible substance.

(n.) Excellence; value; merit; meritoriousness; worth.

(n.) Specifically, moral excellence; integrity of character; purity of soul; performance of duty.

(n.) A particular moral excellence; as, the virtue of temperance, of charity, etc.

(n.) Specifically: Chastity; purity; especially, the chastity of women; virginity.

(n.) One of the orders of the celestial hierarchy.

(imp. & p. p.) of Visa

(n.) The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face.

(v. t.) To face.

(n.) A mask. See Visor.

(v. t.) To mask.

(a.) Sticking or adhering, and having a ropy or glutinous consistency; viscous; glutinous; sticky; tenacious; clammy; as, turpentine, tar, gums, etc., are more or less viscid.

(n.) A clear, viscous, tasteless substance extracted from the mucilaginous sap of the mistletoe (Viscum album), holly, etc., and constituting an essential ingredient of birdlime.

(n.) A genus of parasitic shrubs, including the mistletoe of Europe.

(n.) Birdlime, which is often made from the berries of the European mistletoe.

(n.) One of the organs, as the brain, heart, or stomach, in the great cavities of the body of an animal; -- especially used in the plural, and applied to the organs contained in the abdomen.

(imp. & p. p.) of Vise

(v.) The act of seeing external objects; actual sight.

(v.) The faculty of seeing; sight; one of the five senses, by which colors and the physical qualities of external objects are appreciated as a result of the stimulating action of light on the sensitive retina, an expansion of the optic nerve.

(v.) That which is seen; an object of sight.

(v.) Especially, that which is seen otherwise than by the ordinary sight, or the rational eye; a supernatural, prophetic, or imaginary sight; an apparition; a phantom; a specter; as, the visions of Isaiah.

(v.) Hence, something unreal or imaginary; a creation of fancy.

(v. t.) To see in a vision; to dream.

(n.) A light cape or short cloak of silk or lace worn by women in summer.

(a.) Of or pertaining to the sight; visual.

(pl. ) of Vista

(a.) Of or pertaining to sight; used in sight; serving as the instrument of seeing; as, the visual nerve.

(a.) That can be seen; visible.

(n. pl.) Organs that are necessary for life; more especially, the heart, lungs, and brain.

(n. pl.) Fig.: The part essential to the life or health of anything; as, the vitals of a state.

(a.) Having the nature and qualities of glass; glasslike; -- distinguished from ceramic.

(pl. ) of Vitta

(a. & adv.) Brisk; vivacious; with spirit; -- a direction to perform a passage in a brisk and lively manner.

(n.) A vivarium.

(adv.) In a lively manner.

(n. pl.) Provisions; victuals.

(v. t.) To endue with life; to make to be living; to quicken; to animate.

(n.) A mask; a visor.

(n.) A councilor of state; a high executive officer in Turkey and other Oriental countries.

(n.) A short or weak utterance; a faint or feeble sound, as that heard on separating the lips in pronouncing p or b.

(imp. & p. p.) of Voice

(a.) Furnished with a voice; expressed by the voice.

(a.) Uttered with voice; pronounced with vibrations of the vocal cords; sonant; -- said of a sound uttered with the glottis narrowed.

(imp. & p. p.) of Void

(a.) Emptied; evacuated.

(a.) Annulled; invalidated.

(a.) Having the inner part cut away, or left vacant, a narrow border being left at the sides, the tincture of the field being seen in the vacant space; -- said of a charge.

(n.) One who, or that which, voids, /mpties, vacates, or annuls.

(n.) A tray, or basket, formerly used to receive or convey that which is voided or cleared away from a given place; especially, one for carrying off the remains of a meal, as fragments of food; sometimes, a basket for containing household articles, as clothes, etc.

(n.) A servant whose business is to void, or clear away, a table after a meal.

(n.) One of the ordinaries, much like the flanch, but less rounded and therefore smaller.

(a.) Light; giddy.

(n.) See Volery.

(n.) A flight of birds.

(n.) A large bird cage; an aviary.

(n.) A flight of missiles, as arrows, bullets, or the like; the simultaneous discharge of a number of small arms.

(n.) A burst or emission of many things at once; as, a volley of words.

(n.) A return of the ball before it touches the ground.

(n.) A sending of the ball full to the top of the wicket.

(v. t.) To discharge with, or as with, a volley.

(v. i.) To be thrown out, or discharged, at once; to be discharged in a volley, or as if in a volley; to make a volley or volleys.

(v. i.) To return the ball before it touches the ground.

(v. i.) To send the ball full to the top of the wicket.

(n.) A roll; a scroll; a written document rolled up for keeping or for use, after the manner of the ancients.

(n.) Hence, a collection of printed sheets bound together, whether containing a single work, or a part of a work, or more than one work; a book; a tome; especially, that part of an extended work which is bound up together in one cover; as, a work in four volumes.

(n.) Anything of a rounded or swelling form resembling a roll; a turn; a convolution; a coil.

(n.) Dimensions; compass; space occupied, as measured by cubic units, that is, cubic inches, feet, yards, etc.; mass; bulk; as, the volume of an elephant's body; a volume of gas.

(n.) Amount, fullness, quantity, or caliber of voice or tone.

(n.) Any one of numerous species of large, handsome marine gastropods belonging to Voluta and allied genera.

(n.) A spiral scroll which forms the chief feature of the Ionic capital, and which, on a much smaller scale, is a feature in the Corinthian and Composite capitals. See Illust. of Capital, also Helix, and Stale.

(n.) A spiral turn, as in certain shells.

(n.) Any voluta.

(n.) A genus of minute, pale-green, globular, organisms, about one fiftieth of an inch in diameter, found rolling through water, the motion being produced by minute colorless cilia. It has been considered as belonging to the flagellate Infusoria, but is now referred to the vegetable kingdom, and each globule is considered a colony of many individuals. The commonest species is Volvox globator, often called globe animalcule.

(n.) A lurcher.

(n.) An abscess cavity in the lungs.

(n.) An abscess in any other parenchymatous organ.

(n.) The yellow fever in its worst form, when it is usually attended with black vomit. See Black vomit.

(n.) See Voodooism.

(n.) One who practices voodooism; a negro sorcerer.

(a.) Of or pertaining to voodooism, or a voodoo; as, voodoo incantations.

(n.) A mass of fluid, especially of a liquid, having a whirling or circular motion tending to form a cavity or vacuum in the center of the circle, and to draw in towards the center bodies subject to its action; the form assumed by a fluid in such motion; a whirlpool; an eddy.

(n.) A supposed collection of particles of very subtile matter, endowed with a rapid rotary motion around an axis which was also the axis of a sun or a planet. Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe, and the movements of the bodies composing it, by a theory of vortices.

(n.) Any one of numerous species of small Turbellaria belonging to Vortex and allied genera. See Illustration in Appendix.

(a.) Consecrated by a vow or promise; consequent on a vow; devoted; promised.

(n.) One devoted, consecrated, or engaged by a vow or promise; hence, especially, one devoted, given, or addicted, to some particular service, worship, study, or state of life.

(p. pr. & vb. n.) of Vote

() a. & n. from Vote, v.

(n.) One who makes a vow.

(a.) Given by vow, or in fulfillment of a vow; consecrated by a vow; devoted; as, votive offerings; a votive tablet.

(p. pr. & vb. n.) of Vow

(n.) Formerly, a passage either by sea or land; a journey, in general; but not chiefly limited to a passing by sea or water from one place, port, or country, to another; especially, a passing or journey by water to a distant place or country.

(n.) The act or practice of traveling.

(n.) Course; way.

(v. i.) To take a voyage; especially, to sail or pass by water.

(v. t.) To travel; to pass over; to traverse.

(a.) Of or pertaining to the mass, or multitude, of people; common; general; ordinary; public; hence, in general use; vernacular.

(a.) Belonging or relating to the common people, as distinguished from the cultivated or educated; pertaining to common life; plebeian; not select or distinguished; hence, sometimes, of little or no value.

(a.) Hence, lacking cultivation or refinement; rustic; boorish; also, offensive to good taste or refined feelings; low; coarse; mean; base; as, vulgar men, minds, language, or manners.

(n.) One of the common people; a vulgar person.

(n.) The vernacular, or common language.

(a.) Pertaining to, derived from, or designating, an acid obtained from a lichen (Cetraria vulpina) as a yellow or red crystalline substance which on decomposition yields pulvinic acid.