Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VIL-I-PEND'EN-CY, n.

Disesteem; slight. [Not in use.]

VIL'I-TY, n.

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

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

A village; a small collection of houses. – Hale. The statute of Exeter, 14 Edward I, mentions entire-vills, demi-vills, and hamlets. – Cyc.

VIL'LA, n. [L. villa; Fr. ville; Gaelic, bail.]

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

VIL'LAGE, n. [Fr.; from villa.]

A small assemblage of houses, 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'LA-GER, n.

An inhabitant of a village. – Milton.

VIL'LA-GER-Y, n.

A district of villages. – Shak.

VIL'LAIN, n. [Fr. vilain; It. and Sp. villano; Norm. vilaint. According to the French orthography, this word is formed from vile; 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 villain, the thief, the robber, the burglarian, the murderer, the incendiary, the ravisher, the seducer, the cheat, the swindler, &c. 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.

VIL'LAIN-OUS-LY, adv.

Basely; with extreme wickedness or depravity.

VIL'LAIN-OUS-NESS, n.

Baseness; extreme depravity.

VIL'LAIN-Y, n.

1. Extreme depravity; atrocious wickedness; as, the villainy of the thief or the robber; the villainy of the seducer. The commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy. – Shak.
2. A crime; an action of deep depravity. In this sense, the word has a plural. Such villainies roused Horace into wrath. – Dryden.

VIL'LA-KIN, n.

A little village. [A word used by Gay.]

VIL'LAN-AGE, n.

1. The state of a villain; base servitude.
2. A base tenure of lands; tenure on condition of doing the meanest services for the lord; usually written villenage.
3. Baseness; infamy. [See Villainy.]

VIL'LAN-IZE, v.t.

To debase; to degrade; to defame; to revile. Were virtue by descent, a noble name / Could never villanize his father's fame. – Dryden. [Little used.]

VIL'LAN-IZ-ED, pp.

Defamed; debased. [Little used.]

VIL'LAN-IZ-ING, ppr.

Defaming; debasing. [Little used.]

VIL-LAT'IC, a. [L. villaticus.]

Pertaining to a village. Tame villatic fowl. – Milton.

VIL'LEN-AGE, n. [from villain.]

A tenure of lands and tenements by base services. – Blackstone.

VIL'LI, n. [plur.; L. villus.]

1. In anatomy, fibers.
2. In botany, fine hairs on plants.

VIL'LOUS, a. [L. villosus, from villus, hair, Eng. wool.]

1. Abounding with fine hairs or wooly substance; nappy; shaggy; rough; as, a villous coat. The villous coat of the stomach and intestines is the inner mucous membrane, so called from the innumerable villi or fine fibrils with which its internal surface is covered. Cyc. Parr.
2. In botany, covered with soft hairs.

VIM'IN-AL, a. [L. viminalis.]

Pertaining to twigs; consisting of twigs; producing twigs.

VI-MIN'E-OUS, a. [L. vimineus, from vimen, a twig.]

Made of twigs or shoots. In the hive's vimineous dome. – Prior.

VI-NA'CEOUS, a. [L. vinaceus.]

1. Belonging to wine or grapes. – White.
2. Of the color of wine.

VIN'CI-BLE, a. [from L. vinco, to conquer. See Victor.]

Conquerable; that may be overcome or subdued. He not vincible in spirit. – Hayward.