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Contributing to life; necessary to, or supporting, life; as, vital blood. Do the heavens afford him vital food Spenser. And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth. Milton.

Organs that are necessary for life; more especially, the heart, lungs, and brain.

A sum or stock of words employed. His vocabulary seems to have been no larger than was necessary for the transaction of business. Macaulay.

Endowed with the power of willing; as, man is a voluntary agent. God did not work as a necessary, but a voluntary, agent, intending beforehand, and decreeing with himself, that which did outwardly proceed from him. Hooker.

ch is needed or desired; a thing of which the loss is felt; what is not possessed, and is necessary for use or pleasure. Habitual superfluities become actual wants. Paley.

Naut.), a tendency on the part of a sailing vessel to come up into the wind, rendering it necessary to put the helm up, that is, toward the weather side. -- Weather shore (Naut.), the shore to the windward of a ship. Totten. -- Weather tide (Naut.), the tide which sets against the lee side of a ship, impelling her to…

The necessary means or instrument. So shall I have wherewith to answer him. Ps. cxix. 42. The wherewith to meet excessive loss by radiation. H. Spencer.

A huntsman who keeps the hounds from wandering, and whips them in, if necessary, to the of chase.

to do; the power or faculty of preferring or selecting one of two or more objects. It is necessary to form a distinct notion of what is meant by the word "volition" in order to understand the import of the word will, for this last word expresses the power of mind of which "volition" is the act. Stewart. Will is an amb…

The act of closing, or closing and opening, the eyelids quickly; hence, the time necessary for such an act; a moment. I have not slept one wink. Shak. I could eclipse and cloud them with a wink. Donne.

The letter Z; -- called also zee, and formerly izzard. "Zed, thou unnecessary letter!" Shak.