Noah Webster’s 1828 Dictionary
VORACIOUS — VULTURINE
VORACIOUS, a. [L. vorax, from voro, to devour; Heb. to clear away, to consume; Gr. food.]
1. Greedy for eating; ravenous; very hungry; as a voracious man or appetite.
2. Rapacious; eager to devour; as voracious animals.
3. Ready to swallow up; as a voracious gulf or whirlpool.
VORACIOUSLY, adv. With greedy appetite; ravenously.
VORACIOUSNESS, n. Greediness of appetite; ravenousness; eagerness to devour; rapaciousness.
VORACITY, n. Greediness of appetite; voraciousness.
Creatures by their voracity pernicious, have commonly fewer young.
VORAGINOUS, a. [L. voraginosus, vorago.] Full of gulfs.
VORTEX, n. plu. vortices or vortexes. [L. from verto.]
1. A whirlpool; a whirling or circular motion of water, forming a kind of cavity in the center of the circle, and in some instances, drawing in water or absorbing other things.
2. A whirling of the air; a whirlwind.
3. In the Cartesian system, the circular motion originally impressed on the particles of matter, carrying them around their own axes, and around a common center. By means of these vortices. Descartes attempted to account for the formation of the universe.
VORTICAL, a. Whirling; turning; as a vortical motion.
VOTARESS, n. A female devoted to any service, worship or state of life.
No rosary this votaress needs.
VOTARIST, n. [See Votary.] One devoted or given up to any person or thing, to any service, worship or pursuit.
I am no idle votarist.
[Votary is now used.]
VOTARY, a. [from L. votus, from voveo. See Vow.]
Devoted; promised; consecrated by a vow or promise; consequent on a vow.
Votary resolution is made equipollent to custom.
VOTARY, n. One devoted, consecrated or engaged by a vow or promise; hence more generally, one devoted, given or addicted to some particular service, worship, study or state of life. Every goddess of antiquity had her votaries. Every pursuit or study has now its votaries. One is a votary to mathematics, another is a votary to music, and alas, a great portion of the world are votaries of sensual pleasures.
It was the coldness of the votary, not the prayer, which was in fault.
VOTE, n. [L. votum, from voveo, to vow. Votum is properly wish or will.]
1. Suffrage; the expression of a wish, desire, will, preference or choice, in regard to any measure proposed, in which the person voting has an interest in common with others, either in electing a man to office, or in passing laws, rules, regulations and the like. This vote or expression of will may be given by holding up the hand, by rising and standing up, by the voice, [viva voce.] by ballot, by a ticket or otherwise. All these modes and others are used. Hence,
2. That by which will or preference is expressed in elections or in deciding propositions; a ballot; a ticket, etc.; as a written vote.
3. Expression of will be a majority; legal decision by some expression of the minds of a number; as, the vote was unanimous.
4. United voice in public prayer.
VOTE, v.i. To express or signify the mind, will or preference, in electing men to office, or in passing laws, regulations and the like, or in deciding on any proposition in which one has an interest with others. In elections, men are bound to vote for the best men to fill offices, according to their best knowledge and belief.
To vote for a duelist, is to assist in the prostration of justice, and indirectly to encourage the crime.
VOTE, v.t.
1. To choose by suffrage; to elect by some expression of will; as, the citizens voted their candidate into office with little opposition.
2. To enact ot establish by vote or some expression of will. The legislature voted the resolution unanimously.
3. To grant by vote or expression of will.
Parliament voted them a hundred thousand pounds.
VOTED, pp. Expressed by vote or suffrage; determined.
VOTER, n. One who has a legal right to vote or give his suffrage.
VOTING, ppr. Expressing the mind, will or preference in election, or in determining questions proposed; giving a vote or suffrage; electing, deciding, giving or enacting by vote.
VOTIVE, a. Given by vow; devoted; as votive offereings.
Votive medals, are those on which vows of the people for emperors or empresses are expressed.
Venus, take my votive glass.
v.t.
1. To call to witness; to obtest.
And vouch the silent stars and conscious moon.
2. To declare; to affirm; to attest; to warrant; to maintain by affirmations.
They made him ashamed to vouch the truth of the relation, and afterward to credit it.
2. To warrant; to confirm; to establish proof.
The consistency of the discoursevouches it to be worthy of the great apostle.
4. In law, to call into court to warrant and defend, or to make good a warranty of title.
He vouches the tenant in tail, who vouches over the common vouchee.
VOUCH, v.i. To bear witness; to give testimony or full attestation. I canot vouch for the truth of the report.
He declares he will not believe her, till the elector of Hanover shall vouch for the truth of what she so solemnly affirmed.
VOUCH, n. Warrant; attestation.
VOUCHED, pp. Called to witness; affirmed or fully attested; called into court to make good a warranty.
VOUCHEE, n. In law, the person who is vouched or called into court to support or make good his warranty of title in the process of common recovery.
VOUCHER, n.
1. One who gives witness or full attestation to any thing.
The great writers of that age stand up together as vouchers for each others reputation.
2. In law, the act of calling in a person to make god his warranty of title.
3. A book, paper or document which serves to vouch the truth of accounts, or to confirm or establish facts of any kind. The merchants books are his vouchers for the correctness of his accounts. Notes, bonds receipts and other writings, are used as vouchers in proving facts.
VOUCHER, VOUCHOR, n. In law, the tenant in a writ of right; one who calls in another to establish his warranty of title. In common recoveries, there may be a single voucher, or double vouchers.
VOUCHING, ppr. Calling to witness; attesting by affirmation; calling in to maintain warranty of title.
VOUCHSAFE, v.t. [vouch and safe; to vouch or answer for safety.]
1. To permit to be done without danger.
2. To condescend to grant.
Shall I vouchsafe your worship a word or two?
It is not said by the apostle that God vouchsafed to the heathen the means of salvation.
VOUCHSAFE, v.i. To condescend; to deign; to yield.
Vouchsafe, illustrious Ormond, to behold What power the charms of beauty had of old.
VOUCHSAFED, pp. Granted in condescension.
VOUCHSAFEMENT, n. Grant in condescension; as, Gods greatest communicated vouchsafements.
VOUCHSAFING, ppr. Condescending to grant; deigning.
VOW, n.
1. A solemn promisemade to God, or by a pagan to his deity. The Roman generals when they went to war, sometimes made a vow that they would build a temple to some favorite deity, if he would give them victory. A vow is a promise of something to be given or done hereafter.
A person is constituted a religious by taking three vows, of chastity, of poverty, and of obedience. Among the Isrealites, the vows of children were not binding, unless ratified by the express or tacit consent of their father. Numbers 30:2-15.
2. A solemn promise; as the vows of unchangeable love and fidelity. In a moral and religious sense, vows are promises to God, as they appeal to God to witness their sincerity, and the violation of them is a most heinous offense.
VOW, v.t.
1. To give, consecrate or dedicate to God by a solemn promise. When Jacob went to Mesopotamia, he vowed to God a tenth of this substance, and his own future devotion to his service. Genesis 28:20-22.
When thou vowest a vow, defer not to pay it. Ecclesiastes 5:4.
2. To devote.
VOW, v.i. To make vows or solemn promises. He that vows, must be careful to perform.
VOWED, pp. Solemnly promised to God; given or consecrated by solemn promise.
VOWEL, n.
1. In grammer, a simple sound; a sound utterd by simply opening the mouth or organs; as the sound of a, e, o.
2. The letter or character which represents a simple sound.
VOWEL, a. Pertaining to a vowel; vocal.
VOWELED, a. Furnished with vowels.
VOWER, n. One who makes a vow. [See also Fellow.]
VOWING, ppr. Making a vow.
VOYAGE, n.
1. A passing by sea or water from one place, port or country to another, especially a passing or journey by water to a distant place or country. Captain L. made more than a hundred voyages to the West Indies. A voyage over lake Superior is like a voyage to Bermuda.
2. The practice of traveling. [Not in use.]
VOYAGE, v.i. To sail or pass by water.
VOYAGE, v.t. To travel; to pass over.
I with pain Voyagd th unreal, vast, unbounded deep.
VOYAGER, n. One who sails or passes by sea or water.
A private voyager I pass the main.
VULCANIST. [See Volcanist.]
VULCANO. [See Volcano.]
VULGAR, a.
1. Pertaining to the common unlettered people; as vulgar life.
2. Used or practiced by common people; as vulgar sports.
3. Vernacular; national.
It might be more useful to the English reader, to write in our vulgar language.
4. Common; used by all classes of people; as the vulgar version of the scriptures.
5. Public; as vulgar report.
6. Mean; rustic; rude; low; unrefined; as vulgar ninds; vulgar manners.
7. Consisting of common persons.
In reading an account of a battle, we follow the hero with our whole attention, but seldom reflect on the vulgar heaps of slaughter.
Vulgar fractions, in arithmetic, fractions expressed by a numerator and denominator; thus 2/5.
VULGAR, n. The common people. [It has no plural termination, but has often a plural verb.]
The vulgar imagine the pretender to have been a child imposed on the nation.
VULGARISM, n.
1. Grossness of manners; vulgarity. [Little used.]
2. A vulgar phrase or expression. [This is the usual sense of the word.]
VULGARITY, n.
1. Mean condition in life; the state of the lower classes of society.
2. Grossness or clownishness of manners or language; as vulgarity of behavior; vulgarity of expression or language.
VULGARIZE, v.t. To make vulgar.
VULGARLY, adv.
1. Commonly; in the ordinary manner among the common people.
Such an one we vulgarly call call a desperate person.
2. Meanly; rudely; clownishly.
VULGATE, n. A very ancient Latin version of the scriptures, one the only one which the Romish church admits to be authentic. It is so called from its common use in the Latin church.
VULGATE, a. Pertaining to the old Latin version of the scriptures.
VULNERABLE, a.
1. That may be wounded; susceptible of wounds or external injuries; as a vulnerable body.
Achilles was vulnerable in his heel; and there will never be wanting a Paris to infix the dart.
2. Liable to injury; subject to be affected injuriously; as a vulnerable reputation.