About The Word Vigil
Learn about the word Vigil to help solve your crossword puzzle. Discover Vigil definitions and meaning, origins, synonyms, related terms and more at the free Crossword Dictionary.
Vigil
Vigil Definition And Meaning |
---|
What's The Definition Of Vigil?
[n] a purposeful surveillance to guard or observe
[n] a devotional watch (especially on the eve of a religious festival) [n] a period of sleeplessness Synonyms | Synonyms for Vigil: watch Related Terms | Find terms related to Vigil: See Also | agrypnia | continuous receiver watch | listening watch | religious rite | rite | spying | surveillance | viewing | wake | wakefulness Vigil In Webster's Dictionary \Vig"il\, n. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake,
watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See
{Wake}, v. i., and cf. {Reveille}, {Surveillance}, {Vedette},
{Vegetable}, {Vigor}.]
1. Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is
customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state
of being awake, or the state of being awake;
sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. ``Worn out by the
labors and vigils of many months.'' --Macaulay.
Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the
card table and those cutting passions which attend
them. --Addison.
2. Hence, devotional watching; waking for prayer, or other
religious exercises.
So they in heaven their odes and vigils tuned.
--Milton.
Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate.
--Neale
(Rhythm of St.
Bernard).
3. (Eccl.)
(a) Originally, the watch kept on the night before a
feast.
(b) Later, the day and the night preceding a feast.
He that shall live this day, and see old age,
Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,
And say, ``To-morrow is St. Crispian.'' --Shak.
(c) A religious service performed in the evening preceding
a feast.
{Vigils, or Watchings}, {of flowers} (Bot.), a peculiar
faculty belonging to the flowers of certain plants of
opening and closing their petals as certain hours of the
day. [R.]
|
More Crossword Puzzle Words
A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Cross Word Of The Day
- Dreadful ‐ causing fear or dread or terror; "the awful war"; "an awful risk";…
- Fahrenheit scale ‐ a temperature scale that defines the freezing point of water…
- Tetragrammaton ‐ four Hebrew letters (usually transliterated as YHWH (Yahweh)…
- Research worker ‐ a scientist who devotes himself to…
- Hamitic language ‐ a group of North African languages related…
- Yellow lupine ‐ yellow-flowered European lupine cultivated…
- Israeli ‐ a native or inhabitant of Israel [adj] of or relating to or characteristic…
- Bird-scarer ‐ an effigy in the shape of a man to frighten birds away…
- Smoothbore ‐ of a firearm; not having rifling or internal spiral grooves inside…
- Affective disorder ‐ any mental disorder not caused by detectable organic abnormalities…