Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VAC'U-OUS-NESS, n.

The state of being empty. – Mountague.

VAC'U-UM, n. [L.]

Space empty or devoid of all matter or body. Whether there is such a thing as an absolute vacuum in nature, is a question which has been much controverted. The Peripatetics assert that nature abhors a vacuum. Torricellian vacuum, the vacuum produced by sufficiently filling a tube with mercury, and allowing it to descend till it is counterbalanced by the weight of the atmosphere, as in the barometer invented by Torricelli.

VADE, v.i. [L. vado.]

To vanish; to pass away. [Not in use.] – Wotton.

VA-DE-ME'CUM, n. [L. go with me.]

A book or other thing that a person carries with him as a constant companion; a manual.

VA'FROUS, a. [L. vafer.]

Crafty; cunning. – More.

VAG'A-BOND, a. [L. vagabundus, from vagor, to wander; from the root of wag.]

1. Wandering; moving from place to place without any settled habitation; as, a vagabond exile. – Shak.
2. Wandering; floating about without any certain direction; driven to and fro. Like to a vagabond flag upon the stream. – Shak.

VAG'A-BOND, n. [supra.]

A vagrant; one who wanders from town to town or place to place, having no certain dwelling, or not abiding in it. By the laws of England and of the United States, vagabonds are liable to be taken up and punished.

VAG'A-BOND-AGE, or VAG'A-BOND-ISM, n. [or VAG'A-BOND-RY.]

A state of wandering about in idleness.

VAG'A-BOND-IZE, v.t.

To wander about in idleness.

VA-GA'RY, n. [L. vagus, wandering.]

A wandering of the thoughts; a wild freak; a whim; a whimsical purpose. They chang'd their minds, / Flew off, and into strange vagaries fell. – Milton.

VA'GI-ENT, a. [L. vagiens.]

Crying like a child. [Not in use.] – More.

VA-GI'NA, n. [L. a sheath.]

In botany, the leaf-stalk of those plants in which it becomes thin and rolls round the stem, to which it then forms a sheath. – Brande.

VAG'IN-AL, a. [L. vagina, a sheath. See Wain.]

1. Pertaining to a sheath, or resembling a sheath; as, a vaginal membrane.
2. Pertaining to the vagina.

VAG'IN-ANT, a. [L. vagina.]

In botany, sheathing; as, a vaginant leaf, one investing the stem or branch by its base, which has the form of a tube. – Martyn.

VAG'IN-A-TED, a.

In botany, sheathed; invested by the tubular base of the leaf; as a stem. – Martyn.

VAG-IN-O-PEN'NOUS, a. [L. vagina and penna.]

Having the wings covered with a hard case or sheath, as some insects.

VA'GOUS, a. [L. vagus; Fr. vague.]

Wandering; unsettled. [Little used.] – Ayliffe.

VA'GRAN-CY, n. [from vagrant.]

A state of wandering without a settled home. Vagrancy in idle strollers or vagabonds, is punishable by law.

VA'GRANT, a. [L. vagor.]

1. Wandering from place to place without any settled habitation; as, a vagrant beggar.
2. Wandering; unsettled; moving without any certain direction. That beauteous Emma vagrant courses took. – Prior.

VA'GRANT, n. [Norm. vagarant.]

An idle wanderer; a vagabond; one who strolls from place to place; a sturdy beggar; one who has no settled habitation, or who does not abide in it. Vagrants and outlaws shall offend thy view. – Prior.

VA'GRANT-LY, adv.

In a wandering, unsettled manner.

VAGUE, a. [vāg; Fr., from L. vagus, wandering.]

1. Wandering; vagrant; vagabond; as, vague villains. [In this literal sense, not used.] – Hayward.
2. Unsettled; unfixed; undetermined; indefinite. He appears to have very vague ideas of this subject.
3. Proceeding from no known authority flying; uncertain; as, a vague report.

VAIL, n. [Fr. voile; It. velo; L. velum, from velo, to cover, to spread over; Gaelic, falach, a vail. It is correctly written vail, for e, in Latin, is our a.]

1. Any kind of cloth which is used for intercepting the view and hiding something; as, the vail of the temple among the Israelites.
2. A piece of thin cloth or silk stuff, used by females to hide their faces. In some eastern countries, certain classes of females never appear abroad without vails.
3. A cover; that which conceals; as, the nail of oblivion.
4. In botany, the membranous covering of the germen in the Musci and Hepaticæ; the calypter. – Cyc.
5. Vails, money given to servants. [Not used in America.] – Dryden.

VAIL, v.i.

To yield or recede; to give place; to show respect by yielding. Thy convenience must vail to thy neighbor's necessity. [Obs.] – Shak.

VAIL, v.t.¹ [L. velo.]

To cover; to hide from the sight; as, to vail the face.