Emily Dickinson Lexicon
Lexicon: valve – vanquished
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valve (-s), n. [adaptation < L. valva, leaf of a door.] (webplay: close, door, lid, shuts).
- Shell; case; pericarp; outer coat; seed vessel; covering of a capsule; leaflet of the calyx and corol in a plant; [fig.] bloom; blossom; flower.
- Door; access; covering; portal; partition; one-way outlet; uni-directional communication; [fig.] eyelid; [metaphor] vault; concrete burial container.
van (-s), n. [Shortening of “vanguard” < OFr avangarde.]
- Vanguard; front of an army; first line of a group; foremost division of a fleet in sailing or in battle.
- Flock; group of creatures.
Van Dieman's Land, proper n. [ED's variant spelling of Van Diemen's Land; Dutch < Diem, river in the Netherlands.]
Tasmania; British penal colony; island southeast of Australia; territory named after Anthony Van Diemen, governor of Dutch East Indies; [fig.] zero; abyss; oblivion; nothingness; infinity; underworld; place down under; earth's lower hemisphere; spirit world for the dead.
Vandyke ('s), proper n. [Dutch, van, from + dyke, the dike.]
Sir Anthony Van Dyck (1599-1641); Flemish painter; Baroque portrait and landscape artist; [fig.] master creator.
vane (-'s), n. [southern variation of fane, < common Germanic.] (webplay: showing, way).
- Climate indicator; [metonymy] weather; temperature; meteorological conditions; wind direction.
- Pointer; weather predictor; moving figure on the roof of a barn that indicates wind direction.
- Compass; guide; pathfinder; direction indicator.
vanish (-ed, -es), v. [OFr evaniss.] (webplay: depart, land, rising sun, sense, sight).
- Disappear; exit; [fig.] die; expire; perish; fade away.
- Flee; emigrate; fly away; leave a scene.
- Transform; change into another season of the year.
- Sink; slip away; dive downward.
- Become invisible.
vanished, verbal adj. [see vanish, v.] (webplay: away, light, lost).
- Gone; finished; magically disappearing; no longer present.
- Lost; [fig.] dead; deceased.
- Bygone; from a past era; [fig.] outmoded; outdated; [metonymy] deceased; pertaining to someone long dead.
vanity, n. [OFr vanite < L. vānus.] (webplay: come, idle, once).
- Conceit; self-indulgence; pampered embellishment; excessive ornamentation.
- Emptiness; futility.
vanquish (-ed), v. [OFr vencus, mod. Fr. vaincre, conquer, overcome.] (webplay: away, defeat, victor).
- Conquer; overcome; defeat.
- Woo; win; ravish; seduce; successfully court; [fig.] pollinate; receive pollen from.
- Overwhelm with emotion.
vanquished, verbal adj. [see vanquish, v.]
Subdued; suppressed; overwhelmed; defeated; [fig.] dying; near to death.