Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
VERMIFORM — VEXING
VERMIFORM, a. [L. vermis, a worm, and forma, form.]
Having the form or shape of a worm; as the vermiform process of the cerebellum.
VERMIFUGE, n. [L. vermis, a worm, and fugo, to expel.]
A medicine or substance that destroys or expels worms from animal bodies; an anthelmintic.
VERMIL, VERMILION, a. vermil’yon. [L. vermiculus, vermes; a name sometimes improperly given to the kermes. See Crimson.]
1. The cochineal, a small insect found on a particular plant. [Improper or obsolete.]
2. Red sulphuret of mercury; a bright, beautiful red color of two sorts, natural and artificial. The natural is found in silver mines, in the form of a ruddy sand, which is to be prepared by purification or washing, and then levigated with water on a stone. The factitious or common vermilion is made of artificial cinnabar, ground with white wine, and afterwards with the white of an egg.
3. Any beautiful red color. In blushing, the delicate cheek is covered with vermilion.
VERMILION, v.t. vermil’yon. To dye red; to cover with a delicate red.
VERMILIONED, pp. or a. Dyed or tinged with a bright red.
VERMIN, n. sing, and plu; used chiefly in the plural. [L. vermes, worms.]
1. All sorts of small animals which are destructive to grain or other produce; all noxious little animals or insects, as squirrels, rats, mice, worms, grubs, flies, etc.
These vermin do great injuries in the field.
2. Used of noxious human beings in contempt; as base vermin.
VERMINATE, v.i. [L. vermino.] To breed vermin.
VERMINATION, n.
1. The breeding of vermin.
2. A griping of the bowels.
VERMINOUS, a. Tending to breed vermin.
The verminous disposition of the body.
VERMIPAROUS, a. [L. vermes, worms, and pario, to bear.] Producing worms.
VERMIVOROUS, a. [L. vermes, worms, and voro, to devour.]
Devouring worms; feeding on worms. Vermivorous birds are very useful to the farmer.
VERNACULAR, a. [L. vernaculus, born in one’s house, from verns, a servant.]
1. Native; belonging to the country of one’s birth. English is our vernacular language. The vernacular idiom is seldom perfectly acquired by foreigners.
2. Native; belonging to the person by birth or nature.
A vernacular disease, is one which prevails in a particular country or district; more generally called endemic.
VERNACULOUS, a. [supra.] Vernacular; also, scoffing. Obs.
VERNAL, a. [L. vernalis, from ver, spring.]
1. Belonging to the spring; appearing in spring; as vernal bloom.
Vernal flowers are preparatives to autumnal fruits.
2. Belonging to youth, the spring of life.
Vernal signs, the signs in which the sun appears in the spring.
Vernal equinox, the equinox in spring or March; opposed to the autumnal equnox, in September.
VERNANT, a. [L. vernans; verno, to flourish.] Flourishing, as in spring; as vernant flowers.
VERNATE, v.i. to become young again. [Not in use.]
VERNATION, n. [L. verno.] In botany, the disposition of the nascent leaves within the bud. it is called also foliation or leafing.
VERNIER, n. [from the inventor.] A graduated index which subdivides the smallest divisions on a straight or circular scale.
VERNILITY, n. [L. vernilis, from verna, a slave.] Servility; fawning behavior, like that of a slave. [Not in use.]
VERONICA, n. [vera-icon, true image.]
1. A portrait or representation of the face of our Savior on handkerchiefs.
2. In botany, a genus of plants, Speedwell.
VERRUCOUS, a. [L. verruca, a wart; verrucosus, full of warts.]
Warty; having little knobs or warts on the surface; as a verrucous capsule.
VERSABILITY, VERSABLENESS, n. [L. versabilis, from versor, to turn.]
Aptness to be turned round. [Not used.]
VERSABLE, a. [supra.] That may be turned. [Not used.]
VERSAL, for universal. [Not used or very vulgar.]
VERSATILE, a. [L. versatilis, from versor, to turn.]
1. That may be turned round; as a versatile boat or spindle.
2. Liable to be turned in opinion; changeable; variable; unsteady; as a man of versatile disposition.
3. Turning with ease from one thing to another; readily applied to a new task, or to various subjects; as a man of versatile genius.
4. In botany, a versatile anther is one fixed by the middle on the point of the filament, and so poised as to turn like the needle of a compass; fixed by its side, but freely movable.
VERSATILITY, n.
1. The quality of being versatile; aptness to change; readiness to be turned; variableness.
2. The faculty of easily turning one’s mind to new tasks or subjects; as the versatility of genus.
VERSE, n. vers. [L. versus; verto, to turn.]
1. In poetry, a line, consisting of a certain number of long and short syllables, disposed according to the rules of the species of poetry which the author intends to compose. Verses are of various kinds, as hexameter, pentameter, and tetrameter, etc. according to the number of feet in each. A verse of twelve syllables is called an Alexandrian or Alexandrine. Two or more verses form a stanza or strophe.
2. Poetry; metrical language.
Virtue was taught in verse.
Verse embalms virtue.
3. A short division of any composition, particularly of the chapters in the Scriptures. The author of the division of the Old Testament into verses, is not ascertained. The New Testament was divided into verses by Robert Stephens.
4. A piece of poetry.
5. A portion of an anthem to be performed by a single voice to each part.
6. In a song or ballad, a stanza is called a verse.
Blank verse, poetry in which the lines do not end in rhymes.
Heroic verse, usually consists of ten syllables, or in English, of five accented syllables, constituting five feet.
VERSE, v.t. To tell in verse; to relate poetically.
Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love.
To be versed, [L. vesor.] to be well skilled; to be acquainted with; as, to be versed in history or in geometry.
VERSE-MAN, n. [verse and man.] A writer of verses; in ludicrous language.
VERSER, n. A maker of verses; a versifier.
VERSICLE, n. [L. versiculus.] A little verse. [Not used.]
VERSICOLOR, VERSICOLORED, a. [L. versicolor.] Having various colors; changeable in color.
VERSICULAR, a. Pertaining to verses; designating distinct divisions of a writing.
VERSIFICATION, n. The act, art or practice of composing poetic verse. Versification is the result of art, labor and rule, rather than of invention or the fire of genius. It consists in adjusting the long and short syllables, and forming feet into harmonious measure.
VERSIFICATOR, n. A versifier. [Little used. See Versifier.]
VERSIFIED, pp. [from versify.] Formed into verse.
VERSIFIER, n.
1. One who makes verses. Not every versifier is a poet.
2. One who converts into verse; or one who expresses the ideas of another, written in prose; as, Dr. Watts was a versifier of the Psalms.
VERSIFY, v.i. To make verses.
I’ll versify in spite, and do my best.
VERSIFY, v.t.
1. To relate or describe in verse.
I’ll versify the truth.
2. To turn into verse; as, to versify the Psalms.
VERSION, n. [L. versio.]
1. A turning; a change or transformation; as the version of air into water. [Unusual.]
2. Change of direction; as the version of the beams of light. [Unusual.]
3. The act of translating; the rendering of thoughts or ideas expressed in one language, into words of like signification in another language. How long was Pope engaged in the version of Homer?
4. Translation; that which is rendered from another language. We have a good version of the Scriptures. There is a good version of Pentateuch in Samaritan. The Septuagint version of the Old Testament was made for the benefit of the Jews in Alexandria.
VERST, n. A Russian measure of length, containing 1166 2/3 yards, or 3500 feet; about three quarters of an English mile.
VERT, n. [L. viridis.]
1. In the forest laws, every thing that grows and bears a green leaf within the forest. To preserve vert and venison, is the duty of the verderer.
2. In heraldry, a green color.
VERTEBER, VERTEBRA, n. [L. vertebra, from verto, to turn.] A joint of the spine or backbone of an animal.
VERTEBRAL, a.
1. Pertaining to the joints of the spine or backbone.
2. Having a backbone or spinal joints; as vertebral animals.
VERTEBRAL, n. An animal of the class which have a backbone.
VERTEBRATED, a. [L. vertebratus.] Having a backbone, or vertebral column, containing the spinal marrow, as an animal; as man, quadrupeds, fowls, amphibia, and fishes.
VERTEX, n. [L. from veto, to turn; primarily a round point.]
1. The crown or top of the head.
2. The top of a hill or other thing; the point of a cone, pyramid, angle or figure; the pole of a glass, in optics. The vertex of a curve, is the point from which the diameter is drawn, or the intersection of the diameter and the curve.
3. In astronomy, the zenith; the point of the heavens perpendicularly over the head.
VERTICAL, a. [L. vertex.]
1. Placed or being in the zenith, or perpendicularly over the head. The sun is vertical to the inhabitants within the tropics at certain times every year.
2. Being in a position perpendicular to the plane of the horizon.
Vertical leaves, in botany, are such as stand so erect, that neither of the surfaces can be called the upper or under.
Vertical anthers, are such as terminate the filaments, and being inserted by their base, stand no less upright than the filaments themselves.
Vertical circle, in astronomy, a great circle passing through the zenith and the nadir. The meridian of any place is a vertical circle. The vertical circles are called azimuths.
Vertical line, in conics, is a right line drawn on the vertical plane, and passing through the vertex of the cone.
Vertical plane, in conics, is a plane passing through the vertex of a cone, and through its axis.
Prime vertical, a great circle of the sphere, perpendicular to the horizon, and passing through the zenith and the east and west points.
VERTICALLY, adv. In the zenith.
VERTICALNESS, n. The state of being in the zenith or perpendicularly over the head. [Verticality is not used.]
VERTICIL, n. [L. verticillus, from vertex, supra.]
In botany, a little whirl; a mode of inflorescence, in which the flowers surround the stem in a kind of ring.
VERTICILLATE, a. [supra.] In botany, verticillate flowers are such as grow in a whirl, or round the stem in rings, one above another, at each joint. The term is also applied in this sense to leaves and branches. Verticillate plants are such as bear whirled flowers.
VERTICITY, n. [from vertex, supra.]
1. The power of turning; revolution; rotation.
2. That property of the lodestone by which it turns to some particular point.
The attraction of the magnet was known long before its verticity.
VERTIGINOUS, a. [L. vertiginousus.]
1. Turning round; whirling; rotary; as a vertiginous motion.
2. Giddy; affected with vertigo.
VERTIGINOUSNESS, n. Giddiness; a whirling, or sense of whirling; unsteadiness.
VERTIGO, n. [L. from verto, to turn.] Giddiness; dizziness or swimming of the head; an affection of the head, in which objects appear to move in various directions, though stationary, and the person affected finds it difficult to maintain an erect posture.
VERVAIN, n. A plant of the genus Verbena, or rather the genus so called.
VERVAIN-MALLOW, n. A species of mallow, the Malva alcea.
VERVELS, n. Labels tied to a hawk.
VERY, a. [L. verus.] True; real.
Whether thou be my very son Esau or not. Genesis 27:21.
He that repeateth a matter, separateth very friends. Proverbs 17:9.
VERY, adv. As an adverb, or modifier of adjectives and adverbs, very denotes in a great degree, an eminent or high degree, but not generally the highest; as a very great mountain; a very bright sun; a very cold day; a very pernicious war; a very benevolent disposition; the river flows very rapidly.
VESICANT, n. [infra.] A blistering application; an epispastic.
VESICATE, v.t. [L. vesica, a little bladder. Gr. from to inflate.]
To blister; to raise little bladders, or separate the cuticle by inflaming the skin. Celsus recommends to vesicate the external parts of wounds.
VESICATED, pp. Blistered.
VESICATING, ppr. Blistering.
VESICATION, n. The process of raising blisters or little cuticular bladders on the skin.
VESICATORY, n. A blistering application or plaster; an epispastic. Vesicatories made of cantharides, are more powerful than sinapisms, or preparations of mustard.
VESICLE, n. [. vesicula. See Vesicate.]
1. A little bladder, or a portion of the cuticle separated from the skin and filled with some humor.
2. Any small membranous cavity in animals or vegetables. The lungs consist of vesicles admitting air.
VESICULAR, VESICULOUS, a.
1. Pertaining to vesicles; consisting of vesicles.
2. Hollow; full of interstices.
3. Having little bladders or glands on the surface, as the leaf of a plant.
VESICULATE, a. Bladdery; full of bladders.
VESPER, n. [L. This word and Hesperus are probably of one origin, and both from the root of west.]
1. The evening star; Venus; also, the evening.
2. Vespers, in the plural, the evening song or evening service in the Romish church.
Sicilian vespers, the era of the general massacre of the French in Sicily, or Easter evening, 1282, at the toll of the bell for vespers.
VESPERTINE, a. [L. vespertinus. See Vesper.]
Pertaining to the evening; happening or being in the evening.
VESSEL, n. [L. vas, vasis. This word is probably the English vat.]
1. A cask or utensil proper for holding liquors and other things, as a tun, a pipe, a puncheon, a hogshead, a barrel, a firkin, a bottle, a kettle, a cup, a dish, etc.
2. In anatomy, any tube or canal, in which the blood and other humors are contained, secreted or circulated, as the arteries, veins, lymphatics, spermatics, etc.
3. In the physiology of plants, a canal or tube of very small bore, in which the sap is contained and conveyed; also, a bag or utricle, filled with pulp, and serving as a reservoir for sap; also, a spiral canal, usually of a larger bore, for receiving and distributing air.
4. Any building used in navigation, which carries masts and sails, from the largest ship of war down to a fishing sloop. In general however, vessel is used for the smaller ships, brigs, sloops, schooners, luggers, scows, etc.
5. Something containing.
Vessels of wrath, in Scripture, are such persons as are to receive the full effects of God’s wrath and indignation, as a punishment for their sins.
Vessels of mercy, are persons who are to receive the effects of God’s mercy, or future happiness and glory.
Chosen vessels, ministers of the gospel, as appointed to bear the glad news of salvation to others; called also earthen vessels, on account of their weakness and frailty.
VESSEL, v.t. To put into a vessel. [Not in use.]
VESSETS, n. A kind of cloth.
VESSICON, VESSIGON, n. [L. vesica.] A soft swelling on a horse’s leg, called a windgall.
VEST, n. [L. vestis, a coat or garment; vestio, to cover or clothe.]
1. An outer garment.
Over his lucid arms a military vest of purple flow’d.
2. In common speech, a man’s under garment; a short garment covering the body, but without sleeves, worn under the coat; called also waistcoat.
VEST, v.t.
1. To clothe; to cover, surround or encompass closely.
With ether vested and a purple sky.
2. To dress; to clothe with a long garment; as the vested priest.
To vest with, to clothe; to furnish with; to invest with; as, to vest a man with authority; to vest a court with power to try cases of life and death; to vest one with the right of seizing slave ships.
Had I been vested with the monarch’s pow’r.
To vest in, to put in possession of; to furnish with; to clothe with. The supreme executive power in England is vested in the king; in the United States, it is vested in the president.
2. To clothe with another form; to convert into another substance or species of property; as, to vest money in goods; to vest money in land or houses; to vest money in bank stock, or in six per cent stock; to vest all one’s property in the public funds.
VEST, v.i. To come or descend to; to be fixed; to take effect, as a title or right. Upon the death of the ancestor, the estate, or the right to the estate, vests in the heir at law.
VESTAL, a. [L. vestalis, from Vesta, the goddess of fire, Gr.]
1. Pertaining to Vesta, the goddess of fire among the Romans, and a virgin.
2. Pure; chaste.
VESTAL, n. A virgin consecrated to Vesta, and to the service of watching the sacred fire, which was to be perpetually kept burning upon her altar. The Vestals were six in number, and they made a vow of perpetual virginity.
VESTED, pp.
1. Clothed; covered; closely encompassed.
2. a. Fixed; not in a state of contingency or suspension; as vested rights.
Vested legacy, in law, a legacy the right to which commences in presenti, and does not depend on a contingency, as a legacy to one, to be paid when he attains to twenty one years of age. This is a vested legacy, and if the legatee dies before the testator, his representative shall receive it.
Vested remainder, is where the estate is invariably fixed, to remain to a determinate person, after the particular estate is spent. This is called a remainder executed, by which a present interest passes to the party, though to be enjoyed in future.
VESTIBULE, n. [L. vestibulum.]
1. The porch or entrance into a house, or a large open space before the door, but covered. Vestibules for magnificence are usually between the court and garden.
2. A little antechamber before the entrance of an ordinary apartment.
3. An apartment in large buildings, which presents itself into a hall or suit of rooms or offices. An area in which a magnificent staircase is carried up is sometimes called a vestibule.
4. In anatomy, a cavity belonging to the labyrinth of the ear.
VESTIGE, n. [L. vestigium. This word and vestibule, show that some verb signifying to tread, from which they are derived, is lost.]
A track or footstep; the mark of the foot left on the earth; but mostly used for the mark or remains of something else; as the vestiges of ancient magnificence in Palmyra; vestiges of former population.
VESTING, ppr. [from vest.] Clothing; covering; closely encompassing; descending to and becoming permanent, as a right or title; converting into other species of property, as money.
VESTING, n. Cloth for vests; vest patterns.
VESTMENT, n. [L. vestimentum, from vestio, to clothe.]
A garment; some part of clothing or dress; especially some part of outer clothing; but it is not restricted to any particular garment.
The sculptor could not give vestments suitable to the quality of the persons represented.
VESTRY, n. [L. vestiarium.]
1. A room appendant to a church, in which the sacerdotal vestments, in which the sacerdotal vestments and sacred utensils are kept, and where parochial meetings are held.
2. A parochial assembly, so called because held in the vestry.
The council are chosen by the vestry.
VESTRY-CLERK, n. [vestry and clerk.] An officer chosen by the vestry, who keeps the parish accounts and books.
VESTRY-MAN, n. [vestry and man.] In London, vestry-men are a select number of principal persons of every parish, who choose parish officers and take care of its concerns.
VESTURE, n. [See Vest.]
1. A garment; a robe.
There polish’d chests embroider’d vesture grac’d.
2. Dress; garments in general; habit; clothing; vestment; as the vesture of priests.
3. Clothing; covering.
Rocks, precipices and gulfs appareled with a vesture of plants.
- And gild the humble vestures of the plain.
4. In old law books, the corn with which land was covered; as the vesture of an acre.
5. In old books, seisin; possession. Obs.
VESUVIAN, a. Pertaining to Vesuvius, a volcano near Naples.
VESUVIAN, n. In mineralogy, a subspecies of pyramidical garnet, a mineral found in the vicinity of Vesuvius, classed with the family of garnets; called by Hauy idocrase. It is generally crystallized in four sided prisms, the edges of which are truncated, forming prisms of eight, fourteen or sixteen sides. it sometimes occurs massive. It is composed chiefly of silex, lime and alumin, with a portion of oxyd of iron, and oxyd of manganese.
VETCH, n. [L. vicia. We see vetch if from the root of weigh, wag, wiggle, and signifies a little roller.]
A plant of the leguminous kind, with papilionaceous flowers, of the genus Vicia. It is a common name of most species of the genus. The name is also applied, with various epithets, to many other leguminous plants of different genera; as the chichling vetch, of the genus Lathyrus; the horseshoe vetch, of the genus Hippocrepis; the milk vetch, of the genus Astragalus, etc.
VETCHLING, n. [from vetch.] In botany, a name of the Lathyrus aphaca, expressive of its diminutive size. The meadow vetchling is a wild plant common in meadows, which makes good hay.
VETCHY, a.
1. Consisting of vetches or of pea straw; as a vetchy bed.
2. Abounding with vetches.
VETERAN, a. [L. veteranus, from vetero, to grow old, from vetus, old.]
Having been long exercised in any thing; long practiced or experienced; as a veteran officer or soldier; veteran skill.
VETERAN, n. One who has been long exercised in any service or art, particularly in war; one who has grown old in service and has had much experience.
Ensigns that pierc’d the foe’s remotest lines, the hardy veteran with tears resigns.
VETERINARIAN, n. [L. veterinarius.] One skilled in the diseases of cattle or domestic animals.
VETERINARY, a. [supra.] Pertaining to the art of healing or treating the diseases of domestic animals, as oxen, horses, sheep, etc. A veterinary college was established in England in 1792, at St. Pancras, in the vicinity of London. The improvement of the vetrinary art is of great importance to the agricultural interest.
VETO, n. [L. veto, I forbid.] A forbidding; prohibition; or the right of forbidding; applied to the right of a king or other magistrate or officer to withhold his assent to the enactment of a law, or the passing of a decree. Thus the king of Great Britain has a veto upon every act of parliament; he sometimes prevents the passing of a law by his vet.
VEX, v.t. [L. vexo.]
1. To irritate; to make angry by little provocations; a popular use of the word.
2. To plague; to torment; to harass; to afflict.
Ten thousand torments vex my heart.
3. To disturb; to disquiet; to agitate.
White curl the waves, and the vex’d ocean roars.
4. To trouble; to distress.
I will also vex the hearts of many people. Ezekiel 32:9.
5. To persecute. Acts 12:1.
6. To stretch, as by hooks. [Not in use.]
VEX, v.i. To fret; to be teased or irritated.
VEXATION, n. [L. vesatio.]
1. The act of irritating, or of troubling, disquieting and harassing.
2. State of being irritated or disturbed in mind.
3. Disquiet; agitation; great uneasiness.
Passions too violent - afford us vexation and pain.
4. The cause of trouble or disquiet.
Your children were vexation to your youth.
5. Afflictions; great troubles; severe judgments.
The Lord shall send on thee cursing, vexation and rebuke. Deuteronomy 28:20.
6. A harassing by law.
7. A slight teasing trouble.
VEXATIOUS, a.
1. Irritating; disturbing or agitating to the mind; causing disquiet; afflictive; as a vexatious controversy; a vexatious neighbor.
2. Distressing; harassing; as vexatious wars.
3. Full of trouble and disquiet.
He leads a vexatious life.
4. Teasing; slightly troublesome; provoking.
A vexatious suit, in law, is one commenced for the purpose of giving trouble, or without cause.