Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VIGOR, v.t.

To invigorate. [Not in use.] relaters 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.

VIGOR-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 cc 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. {foreign}.]

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. I Sam. iii. Behold sin; 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.
2. In a cowardly manner. 2 Sam. i. The Volscians vilely yielded the town.

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-CATION, n.

The act of vilifying or defaming.

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

Defamed; traduced; de based.

VI-LI-FI-ER, n.

One who defames or traduces.

VIL'I-FY, v.i. [from vile.]

1. To make vile; to debase.; to degrade. Their Maker's Image Forsook them, when themselves they vilified To nerve ungovern'd appetite. Nam
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.]

VILI-FY-ING, ppr.

Debasing; defaming.

VILI-PEND, v.t. [L. vilipendo.]

To despise. [Not in use.]

VIL-I-PENDEN-CY, n.

Disesteem; slight. [Not in use.]

VILI-TY, n.

Vileness; baseness. [Not in use.] Kennet.

VILL, n. [L. villa; Fr. vile.]

A village; a small collection of houses. Hale. The statute of Exeter, I4 Edward I, mentions entire-vills, demi-vills, and hamlets. Cyc.

VILLA, n. [L. rata; Fr. vine; Gaelic, bail.]

A country seat or a farm, furnished with a mansion and convenient out-houses. Cyc.

VILLAGE, n. [Fr.; from villa.]

A small assemblage of horses, less than a town or city, and inhabited chiefly by farmers and other laboring people. In England, it is said that a village is distinguished from a town by the want of market. Cyc. In the United States, no such distinction exists, and any small assemblage of houses in the country is called a village.

VIL'LAGER, n.

An inhabitant of a village.

VILLA-GER-Y, n.

A district of villages. Shak.

VILLAIN, n. [Fr. Wain; It. and Sp. villano; Norm. vilaint. According to the French orthography, this word is formed from rile; but the orthography in other languages connects this word with vill, village, and this is probably the true origin.]

1. In feudal law, a villain or villein is one who holds lands by a base or servile tenure, or in villanage. Villains were of two sorts; villains regardant, that is, annexed to the manor, adscriptitii glebae; or villains in gross, that is, annexed to the person of their lord, and transferable from one to another. Blackstone.
2. A vile wicked person; a man extremely depraved, and capable or guilty of great crimes. We call by the name of the thief, the robber, the burglarian, the murderer, the incendiary, the ravisher, the seducer, the cheat, the swindler, tics. Calm thinking villains, whom no faith could fix. Pope.

VIL'LAIN-OUS, a. [from villain.]

1. Base; very vile.
2. Wicked; extremely depraved; as, a villainous person or wretch.
3. Proceeding from extreme depravity; as, a villainous action.
4. Sorry; vile; mischievous; in a familiar sense; as, a villainous trick of the eye. Shak. Villainous judgment, in old law, a judgment that casts reproach on the guilty person.