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 Linnæus 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.]