Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VIG'IL, n. [L. vigilia; Fr. vigile; L. vigil, waking, watchful; vigilo, to watch. This is formed on the root of Eng. wake, Sax. wæcan, wecan. The primary sense is to stir or excite, to rouse, to agitate.]

1. Watch; devotion performed in the customary hours of rest or sleep. So they in heav'n their odes and vigils tun'd. Milton.
2. In church affairs, the eve or evening before any feast, the ecclesiastical day beginning at six o'clock in the evening, and continuing till the same hour the following evening; hence, a religious service performed in the evening preceding a holiday.
3. A fast observed on the day preceding a holiday; a wake. Cyc.
4. Watch; forbearance of sleep; as, the vigils of the card table. Addison. Vigils or watchings of flowers, a term used by Linnaeus to express a peculiar faculty belonging to the flowers of certain plants, of opening and closing their petals at certain hours of the day. Cyc.

VIG'IL-ANCE, n. [Fr. from L. vigilans. See Vigil.]

1. Forbearance of sleep; a state of being awake. Parr.
2. Watchfulness; circumspection; attention of the mind in discovering and guarding against danger, or providing for safety. Vigilance is a virtue of prime importance in a general. The vigilance of the dog is no less remarkable than his fidelity.
3. Guard; watch. In at this gate none pass The vigilance here plac'd. [Unusual.] Milton.

VIG'IL-AN-CY, n. [for Vigilance, is not used.]

VIG'IL-ANT, a. [Fr. from L. vigilans.]

Watchful; circumspect; attentive to discover and avoid danger, or to provide for safety. Take your places and be vigilant. Shak. Be sober, be vigilant. 1 Pet. v.

VIG'IL-ANT-LY, adv. [supra.]

Watchfully; with attention to danger and the means of safety; circumspectly.

VI-GIN-TIV'I-RATE, n. [L. viginti and viri.]

A body of officers of government, consisting of twenty men. Murphy.

VIG-NETTE', or VIG-NET, n. [Fr. vignette, from vigne, a vine.]

An ornament placed at the beginning of a book, preface dedication; a head piece. These vignets are of various forms; often they are wreaths of flowers or sprigs.

VIG'OR, n. [L. from vigeo, to be brisk, to grow, to be strong; allied to vivo, vixi, to live, and to Sax. wigan, to carry on war, and to wake.]

1. Active strength or force of body in animals; physical force. The vigor of this arm was never vain. Dryden.
2. Strength of mind; intellectual force; energy. We say, a man possesses vigor of mind or intellect.
3. Strength or force in animal or vegetable motion; as, a plant grows with vigor.
4. Strength; energy; efficacy. In the fruitful earth His beams, unactive else, their vigor find. Milton.

VIG'OR, v.t.

To invigorate. [Not in use.] Feltham.

VIGOROSO, adv. [Vigoroso.]

In music, with energy.

VIG'OR-OUS, a.

1. Full of physical strength or active force; strong; lusty; as, a vigorous youth; a vigorous body.
2. Powerful; strong; made by strength, either of body or mind; as, a vigorous attack; vigorous exertions. The enemy expects a vigorous campaign. The beginnings of confederacies have been vigorous and successful. Davenant.

VIG'OR-OUS-LY, adv.

With great physical force or strength; forcibly; with active exertions; as, to prosecute an enterprise vigorously.

VIG'OR-OUS-NESS, n.

The quality of being vigorous or possessed of active strength. [Vigor and all its derivatives imply active strengths or the power of action and exertion, in distinction from passive strength, or strength to endure.]

VILD, or VIL'ED, a.

Vile. [Not in use.] Spenser.

VILE, a. [L. vilis; Fr. and Sp. vil; It. vile; Gr. φαυλος.]

1. Base; mean; worthless; despicable. The inhabitants account gold a vile thing. Abbot. A man in vile raiment. James ii. Wherefore are we counted as beasts, and reputed as vile in your sights? Job xviii.
2. Morally base or impure; sinful; depraved by sin; wicked; hateful in the sight of God and of good men. The sons of Eli made themselves vile. 1 Sam. iii. Behold I am vile; what shall I answer? Job xl.

VIL'ED, a.

Abusive; scurrilous; defamatory. [Not in use.] Hayward.

VILE'LY, adv.

1. Basely; meanly; shamefully; as, Hector vilely dragged about the walls of Troy. Philips.
2. In a cowardly manner. 2 Sam. i. The Volscians vilely yielded the town. Shak.

VILE'NESS, n.

1. Baseness; meanness; despicableness. His vileness us shall never awe. Drayton.
2. Moral baseness or depravity; degradation by sin; extreme wickedness; as, the vileness of mankind. Prior.

VIL'EST, a.

Most vile. Borrow.

VIL-I-FI-CA'TION, n.

The act of vilifying or defaming.

VIL'I-FI-ED, pp. [from vilify.]

Defamed; traduced; debased.

VIL'I-FI-ER, n.

One who defames or traduces.

VIL'I-FY, v.t. [from vile.]

1. To make vile; to debase; to degrade. Their Maker's image / Forsook them, when themselves they vilified / To serve ungovern'd appetite. Milton.
2. To defame; to traduce; to attempt to degrade by slander. Many passions dispose us to depress and vilify the merit of one rising in the esteem of mankind. Addison. [This is the most usual sense of the verb.]

VIL'I-FY-ING, ppr.

Debasing; defaming.

VIL'I-PEND, v.t. [L. vilipendo.]

To despise. [Not in use.]