Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VIS'NO-MY, n. [a barbarous contraction of physiognomy.]

Face; countenance. [Not in use.] – Spenser.

VI'SOR, n. [s as z; Fr. visiere; It. visiera; from L. visus, video; written also visard, visar, vizard.]

1. A head piece or mask used to disfigure and disguise. My weaker government since, makes you pull off the visor. – Sidney. Swarms of knaves the visor quite disgrace. – Young.
2. A perforated part of a helmet. – Sidney.

VI'SOR-ED, a.

Wearing a visor; masked; disguised. – Milton.

VIS'TA, n. [It. sight; from L. visus, video.]

A view or prospect through an avenue, as between rows of trees; hence, the trees or other things that form the avenue. The finish'd garden to the view / Its vistas opens and its alleys green. – Thomson.

VIS'U-AL, a. [s as z; Fr. visuel; It. visuale; from L. visus.]

Pertaining to sight; used in sight; serving as the instrument of seeing; as, the visual nerve. – Bacon. Milton. The air, / No where so clear, sharpen'd his visual ray. – Milton. Visual point, in perspective, a point in the horizontal line, in which all the ocular rays unite. – Cyc. Visual rays, lines of light, imagined to come from the object to the eye. – Cyc.

VIS'U-AL-IZE, v.t.

To make visual.

VIS'U-AL-IZ-ED, pp.

Rendered visual. – Coleridge.

VI'TAL, a. [L. vitalis, from vita, life. This must be a contraction of victa, for vivo forms vixi, victus; Gr. βιος, from βιοω, contracted.]

1. Pertaining to life, either animal or vegetable; as, vital energies; vital powers.
2. Contributing to life; necessary to life; as, vital air; vital blood.
3. Containing life. Spirits that live throughout, / Vital in every part. – Milton. And vital virtue infus'd, and vital warmth. – Milton.
4. Being the seat of life; being that on which life depends. The dart flew on, and pierc'd a vital part. – Pope.
5. Very necessary; highly important; essential. Religion is a business of vital concern. Peace is of vital importance to our country.
6. So disposed as to live. Pythagoras and Hippocrates affirm the birth of the seventh month to be vital. [Little used.] – Brown. Vital air, oxygen gas, which is essential to animal life.

VI-TAL'I-TY, n. [from vital.]

1. The principle of animation, or of life; as, the vitality of vegetable seeds or of eggs. – Ray.
2. The act of living; animation.

VIT-AL-I-ZA'TION, n.

The act or process of infusing the vital principle. – C. Caldwell.

VI'TAL-IZE, v.t.

1. To give life to. – Trans. Pausanias.
2. To furnish with the vital principle; as, vitalized blood. – Caldwell.

VI'TAL-IZ-ED, pp.

Supplied with the vital principle.

VI'TAL-IZ-ING, ppr.

Furnishing with the vital principle.

VI'TAL-LY, adv.

1. In such a manner as to give life. The organic structure of human bodies, by which they are fitted to live and move, and to be vitally informed by the soul, is the workmanship of a most wise and beneficent Maker. – Bentley.
2. Essentially; as, vitally important.

VI'TALS, n. [plur.]

1. Parts of animal bodies essential to life, such as the viscera dependent upon the great sympathetic nerve . – Prior.
2. The part essential to life, or to a sound state. Corruption of manners preys upon the vitals of a state.

VIT'EL-LA-RY, n. [L. vitellus, the yelk of an egg.]

The place where the yelk of an egg swims in the white. [Little used.] – Brown.

VI'TIATE, v.t. [L. vitio. See Vice and Viciate.]

1. To injure the substance or qualities of a thing, so as to impair or spoil its use and value. Thus we say, luxury vitiates the humors of the body; evil examples vitiate the morals of youth; language is vitiated by foreign idioms. This undistinguishing complaisance will vitiate the taste of readers. – Garth.
2. To render defective; to destroy; as the validity or binding force of an instrument or transaction. Any undue influence exerted on a jury vitiates their verdict. Fraud vitiates a contract.

VI'TIA-TED, pp.

Depraved; rendered impure; rendered defective and void.

VI'TIA-TING, pp.

Depraving; rendering of no validity.

VI-TI-A'TION, n.

1. The act of vitiating; depravation; corruption; as, the vitiation of the blood. – Harvey.
2. A rendering invalid; as, the vitiation of a contract.

VIT-I-LIT'I-GATE, v.i. [L. vitiosus and litigo.]

To contend in law litigiously or cavilously. [Not in use.]

VIT-I-LIT-I-GA'TION, n.

Cavilous litigation. [Not in use.] – Hudibras.

VI'TIOUS, a. [or VI'TIOUS-LY, or VI'TIOUS-NESS. or adv. or n. See Vicious, and its derivatives.]

VIT'RE-O-E-LEC'TRIC, a.

Containing or exhibiting positive electricity, or that which is excited by rubbing glass. – Ure.

VIT'RE-OUS, a. [L. vitreus, from vitrum, glass or woad; W. gleydyr, glass, a greenish blue color.]

1. Pertaining to glass.
2. Consisting of glass; as, it vitreous substance.
3. Resembling glass; as, the vitreous humor of the eye, so called from its resembling melted glass. [See Humor.]