Search the Dictionary

tion; to inhere; to lie or be as in attribute or element. In such like acts, the duty and virtue of contentedness doth especially reside. Barrow.

ill one greater man Restore us, and regain the blissful seat. Milton. The father banished virtue shall restore. Dryden.

To throw back; to reverberate; to reflect. As when his virtues, shining upon others, Heat them and they retort that heat again To the first giver. Shak.

The act of retruding, or the state of being retruded. In virtue of an endless remotion or retrusion of the constituent cause. Coleridge.

ation; the other in us, which consisteth of faith, hope, and charity, and other Christian virtues. Hooker. Only for the righteousness of Christ imputed to us, and received by faith alone. Westminster Catechism.

tter social position; to be promoted; to excel; to succeed. Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall. Shak.

A person sanctified; a holy or godly person; one eminent for piety and virtue; any true Christian, as being redeemed and consecrated to God. Them that are sanctified in Christ Jesus, called to be saints. 1 Cor. i. 2.

d to satirize well a man of distinguished vices, as to praise well a man of distinguished virtues. Swift.

ttered heedlessly or maliciously. You must not put another scandal on him. Shak. My known virtue is from scandal free. Dryden.

A mean, worthless fellow; a rascal; a villain; a man without honor or virtue. Go, if your ancient, but ignoble blood Has crept through soundrels ever since the flood. Pope.

That from which anything springs; first principle; original; source; as, the seeds of virtue or vice.

Something claimed or taken by virtue of sovereign prerogative; specifically, a charge or toll deducted from bullion brought to a mint to be coined; the difference between the cost of a mass of bullion and the value as money of the pieces coined from it. If government, however, throws the expense of coinage, as is reaso…

To take possession of by virtue of a warrant or other legal authority; as, the sheriff seized the debtor's goods.

Inherent existence; existence possessed by virtue of a being's own nature, and independent of any other being or cause; -- an attribute peculiar to God. Blackmore.

ss; resemblance, actual or apparent; similitude; as, the semblance of worth; semblance of virtue. Only semblances or imitations of shells. Woodward.

ents; germinal; radical; primary; original; as, seminal principles of generation; seminal virtue. The idea of God is, beyond all question or comparison, the one great seminal principle. Hare. Seminal leaf (Bot.), a seed leaf, or cotyleden. -- Seminal receptacle. (Zoöl.) Same as Spermatheca.

leasures of sense and appetite; luxurious; voluptuous; lewd; libidinous. No small part of virtue consists in abstaining from that wherein sensual men place their felicity. Atterbury.

Causing, or being to cause, separation. "Separative virtue of extreme cold." Boyle.

Easily confused or put out of countenance; diffident; bashful; modest. Your shamefaced virtue shunned the people's prise. Dryden.

To cause to shine, as a light. [Obs.] He [God] doth not rain wealth, nor shine honor and virtues, upon men equally. Bacon.