Dictionary
Showing 301-350 of 2794 results
Vamper
() To swagger; to make an ostentatious show.
Vampire
() A blood-sucking ghost; a soul of a dead person superstitiously believed to come from the grave and wander about by night sucking the blood of persons asleep, thus causing their death. This superstition is now prevalent in parts of Eastern Europe, and was especially current in Hungary about the year 1730.
Vampire
() Fig.: One who lives by preying on others; an extortioner; a bloodsucker.
Vampire
() Either one of two or more species of South American blood-sucking bats belonging to the genera Desmodus and Diphylla. These bats are destitute of molar teeth, but have strong, sharp cutting incisors with which they make punctured wounds from which they suck the blood of horses, cattle, and other animals, as well as man, chiefly during sleep. They have a caecal appendage to the stomach, in which the blood with which they gorge themselves is stored.
Vampire
() Any one of several species of harmless tropical American bats of the genus Vampyrus, especially V. spectrum. These bats feed upon insects and fruit, but were formerly erroneously supposed to suck the blood of man and animals. Called also false vampire.
Vampirism
() Belief in the existence of vampires.
Vampirism
() The actions of a vampire; the practice of bloodsucking.
Vampirism
() Fig.: The practice of extortion.
Vamplate
() A round of iron on the shaft of a tilting spear, to protect the hand.
Vamure
() See Vauntmure.
Van
() The front of an army; the first line or leading column; also, the front line or foremost division of a fleet, either in sailing or in battle.
Van
() A shovel used in cleansing ore.
Van
() To wash or cleanse, as a small portion of ore, on a shovel.
Van
() A light wagon, either covered or open, used by tradesmen and others fore the transportation of goods.
Van
() A large covered wagon for moving furniture, etc., also for conveying wild beasts, etc., for exhibition.
Van
() A close railway car for baggage. See the Note under Car, 2.
Van
() A fan or other contrivance, as a sieve, for winnowing grain.
Van
() A wing with which the air is beaten.
Van
() To fan, or to cleanse by fanning; to winnow.
Vanadate
() A salt of vanadic acid.
Vanadic
() Pertaining to, or obtained from, vanadium; containing vanadium; specifically distinguished those compounds in which vanadium has a relatively higher valence as contrasted with the vanadious compounds; as, vanadic oxide.
Vanadinite
() A mineral occurring in yellowish, and ruby-red hexagonal crystals. It consist of lead vanadate with a small proportion of lead chloride.
Vanadious
() Pertaining to, or containing, vanadium; specifically, designating those compounds in which vanadium has a lower valence as contrasted with the vanadic compounds; as, vanadious acid.
Vanadite
() A salt of vanadious acid, analogous to a nitrite or a phosphite.
Vanadium
() A rare element of the nitrogen-phosphorus group, found combined, in vanadates, in certain minerals, and reduced as an infusible, grayish-white metallic powder. It is intermediate between the metals and the non-metals, having both basic and acid properties. Symbol V (or Vd, rarely). Atomic weight 51.2.
Vanadous
() Of or pertaining to vanadium; obtained from vanadium; -- said of an acid containing one equivalent of vanadium and two of oxygen.
Vanadyl
() The hypothetical radical VO, regarded as a characterized residue of certain vanadium compounds.
Van-courier
() One sent in advance; an avant-courier; a precursor.
Vandal
() One of a Teutonic race, formerly dwelling on the south shore of the Baltic, the most barbarous and fierce of the northern nations that plundered Rome in the 5th century, notorious for destroying the monuments of art and literature.
Vandal
() Hence, one who willfully destroys or defaces any work of art or literature.
Vandal
() Alt. of Vandalic
Vandalic
() Of or pertaining to the Vandals; resembling the Vandals in barbarism and destructiveness.
Vandalism
() The spirit or conduct of the Vandals; ferocious cruelty; hostility to the arts and literature, or willful destruction or defacement of their monuments.
Vandyke
() Of or pertaining to the style of Vandyke the painter; used or represented by Vandyke.
Vandyke
() A picture by Vandyke. Also, a Vandyke collar, or a Vandyke edge.
Vandyke
() fit or furnish with a Vandyke; to form with points or scallops like a Vandyke.
Vane
() A contrivance attached to some elevated object for the purpose of showing which way the wind blows; a weathercock. It is usually a plate or strip of metal, or slip of wood, often cut into some fanciful form, and placed upon a perpendicular axis around which it moves freely.
Vane
() Any flat, extended surface attached to an axis and moved by the wind; as, the vane of a windmill; hence, a similar fixture of any form moved in or by water, air, or other fluid; as, the vane of a screw propeller, a fan blower, an anemometer, etc.
Vane
() The rhachis and web of a feather taken together.
Vane
() One of the sights of a compass, quadrant, etc.
Vanessa
() Any one of numerous species of handsomely colored butterflies belonging to Vanessa and allied genera. Many of these species have the edges of the wings irregularly scalloped.
Vanessian
() A vanessa.
Vanfess
() A ditch on the outside of the counterscarp, usually full of water.
Vang
() A rope to steady the peak of a gaff.
Vanglo
() Benne (Sesamum orientale); also, its seeds; -- so called in the West Indies.
Vanguard
() The troops who march in front of an army; the advance guard; the van.
Vanilla
() A genus of climbing orchidaceous plants, natives of tropical America.
Vanilla
() The long podlike capsules of Vanilla planifolia, and V. claviculata, remarkable for their delicate and agreeable odor, for the volatile, odoriferous oil extracted from them; also, the flavoring extract made from the capsules, extensively used in confectionery, perfumery, etc.
Vanillate
() A salt of vanillic acid.
Vanillic
() Pertaining to, or derived from, vanilla or vanillin; resembling vanillin; specifically, designating an alcohol and an acid respectively, vanillin being the intermediate aldehyde.