Emily Dickinson Lexicon

VO-LU'MIN-OUS-LY, adv.

In many volumes; very copiously. – Granville.

VO-LU'MIN-OUS-NESS, n.

State of being bulky or in many volumes.

VOL'UM-IST, n.

One who writes a volume; an author. [Not in use.] – Milton.

VOL'UN-TA-RI-LY, adv. [from voluntary.]

Spontaneously; of one's own will; without being moved, influenced, or impelled by others. To be agents voluntarily to our own destruction, is against God and nature. – Hooker.

VOL'UN-TA-RI-NESS, n.

The state of being voluntary or optional.

VOL'UN-TA-RY, a.

1. [Fr. volontaire; L. voluntarius, from voluntas, will, from volo. Voluntary is applicable only to beings that have will; spontaneous is applicable to physical causes, as well as to the will of an agent.
2. Acting by choice or spontaneously; acting without being influenced or impelled by another.
3. Free, or having power to act by choice; not being under restraint; as, man is a voluntary agent. – Hooker.
4. Proceeding from choice or free will. That sin or guilt pertains exclusively to voluntary action, is the true principle of orthodoxy. – N. W. Taylor.
5. Willing; acting with willingness. She fell to lust a voluntary prey. – Pope.
6. Done by design; purposed; intended. If a man kills another by lopping a tree, here is a no voluntary murder.
7. Done freely, or of choice; proceeding from free will. He went into voluntary exile. He made a voluntary surrender.
8. Acting of his own accord; spontaneous; as, the voluntary dictates of knowledge.
9. Subject to the will; as, the voluntary motions of an animal. Thus the motion of a leg or an arm is voluntary, but the motion of the heart is involuntary. A voluntary escape, in law, is the escape of a prisoner by the express consent of the sherif. Voluntary jurisdiction, is that which is exercised in doing that which no one opposes; as in granting dispensations, &c. Voluntary affidavit or oath, is one made in an extra-judicial matter. Voluntary waste, is that which is committed by positive acts.

VOL'UN-TA-RY, n.

1. One who engages in any affair of his own free will; a volunteer. [In this sense, volunteer is now generally used.]
2. In music, a piece played by a musician extemporarily, according to his fancy. In the Philosophical Transactions, we have a method of writing voluntaries, as fast as the musician plays the notes. This is by a cylinder turtling under the keys of the organ. – Cyc.
3. A composition for the organ.

VOL-UN-TEER', a.

Entering into service of free will; as, volunteer companies.

VOL-UN-TEER', n. [Fr. volontaire.]

A person who enters into military or other service of his own free will. In military affairs, volunteers enter into service voluntarily, but when in service they are subject to discipline and regulations like other soldiers. They sometimes serve gratuitously, but often receive a compensation.

VOL-UN-TEER', v.i.

To enter into any service of one's free will, without solicitation or compulsion. He volunteered in that undertaking. [These verbs are in respectable use.]

VOL-UN-TEER', v.t.

To offer or bestow voluntarily, or without solicitation or compulsion; as, to volunteer one's services.

VO-LUP'TU-A-RY, n. [L. voluptuarius, from voluptas, pleasure.]

A man addicted to luxury or the gratification of the appetite, and to other sensual pleasures. – Atterbury.

VO-LUP'TU-OUS, a. [Fr. voluptueux; L. voluptuosus.]

Given to the enjoyments of luxury and pleasure; indulging to excess in sensual gratifications. Soften'd with pleasure and voluptuous life. – Milton.

VO-LUP'TU-OUS-LY, adv.

Luxuriously; with free indulgence of sensual pleasures; as, to live voluptuously.

VO-LUP'TU-OUS-NESS, n.

Luxuriousness; addictedness to pleasure or sensual gratification. Where no voluptuousness, yet all delight. – Donne.

VOL-U-TA'TION, n. [L. volutatio, from voluto, from volvo, Eng. to wallow.]

A wallowing; a rolling of the body on the earth. [See Wallow.]

VO-LUTE', n. [Fr. volute; It. voluta; from L. volutus, volvo.]

1. In architecture, a kind of spiral scroll, used in the Ionic and Composite capitals, of which it is a principal ornament. The number of volutes in the ionic order, is four; in the Composite, eight. There are also eight angular volutes in the Corinthian capital, accompanied with eight smaller ones, called helices. – Cyc.
2. In natural history, the proposed popular name for a genus of shells. – Say.

VO-LU'TION, n.

A spiral turn.

VOL'U-TITE, n.

A petrified shell of the genus Voluta . – Jameson.

VOL'VIC, a.

Denoting a species of stone or lava.

VOM'IC, a.

The vomic nut, nux vomica is the seed of the Strychnos nux vomica, a native of the East Indies. It is a very valuable medicine . – Cyc.

VOM'IC-A, n. [L.]

An abscess in the lungs.

VOM'IC-NUT, n. [L. vomica, emetic, and nux, a nut.]

The seed of the Strychnos nux vomica, a medium sized tree growing in various parts of India. The fruit is of the size of a small orange, and of the same color, covered with a tough rind, and filled with a pulp, in which the seeds are imbedded. Almost all parts of this tree are medicinal, but more especially the seeds. They are not emetic however, as their name implies. The snake-wood does not belong to this tree, as some have asserted, but to Strychnos colubrina, another species of the same genus.

VOM'IT, n.

1. The matter ejected front the stomach. – Sandys.
2. That which excites the stomach to discharge its contents; an emetic. Black vomit, the dark colored matter ejected from the stomach in the last stage of the yellow fever or other malignant disease.

VOM'IT, v.i. [L. vomo; Fr. vomir; It. vomire; Sans. vamathu. Probably the Gr. εμεω is the same word, with the loss of its first letter.]

To eject the contents of the stomach by the mouth. Some animals vomit with ease, as cats and dogs; but horses do not vomit . – Cyc.