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Having no effect; not operating; inefficient. [R.] Cause . . . silent, virtueless, and dead. Sir W. Raleigh. Silent partner. See Dormant partner, under Dormant.

dicinal plant; -- so called because each vegetable was supposed to possess its particular virtue, and therefore to constitute a simple remedy. What virtue is in this remedy lies in the naked simple itself as it comes over from the Indies. Sir W. Temple.

False; specious; counterfeit. [R. & Obs.] "Thou simular man of virtue." Shak.

Honestly; unfeignedly; without dissimulation; as, to speak one's mind sincerely; to love virtue sincerely.

To treat with sneers; to affect or move by sneers. Nor sneered nor bribed from virtue into shame. Savage.

tation of Adam's sin, and that human salvation was the imitation and adoption of Christ's virtue; that the Bible was to be interpreted by human reason; and that its language was metaphorical, and not to be taken literally.

Causing sleep; tending to cause sleep; soporiferous; as, the soporific virtues of opium.

sonant with. [Obs., except in the phrase To sound in damages, below.] Soun[d]ing in moral virtue was his speech. Chaucer. -- To sound in damages (Law), to have the essential quality of damages. This is said of an action brought, not for the recovery of a specific thing, as replevin, etc., but for damages only, as tresp…

an animal or a plant; the specific qualities of a drug; the specific distinction between virtue and vice. Specific difference is that primary attribute which distinguishes each species from one another. I. Watts.

you from all evil spice. Wyclif (1. Thess,v. 22). Justice, although it be but one entire virtue, yet is described in two kinds of spices. The one is named justice distributive, the other is called commutative. Sir T. Elyot.

ith only a part of the sails spread; to scud under bare poles. [Written also spoon.] When virtue spooms before a prosperous gale, My heaving wishes help to fill the sail. Dryden.

To perish with hunger; to suffer extreme hunger or want; to be very indigent. Sometimes virtue starves, while vice is fed. Pope.

ion. -- Statute staple, a bond of record acknowledged before the mayor of the staple, by virtue of which the creditor may, on nonpayment, forthwith have execution against the body, lands, and goods of the debtor, as in the statute merchant. It is now disused. Blackstone.

; as, a stellar figure; stellary orbs. [These soft fires] in part shed down Their stellar virtue. Milton.

To set a mark of disgrace on; to brand with some mark of reproach or infamy. To find virtue extolled and vice stigmatized. Addison.

up an opening or gap; hence, a temporary expedient. Moral prejudices are the stop-gaps of virtue. Hare.

ly; to replenish; esp., to stock or furnish against a future time. Her mind with thousand virtues stored. Prior. Wise Plato said the world with men was stored. Denham. Having stored a pond of four acres with carps, tench, and other fish. Sir M. Hale.

ted or accumulated as a reserve supply; as, stored electricity. It is charged with stored virtue. Bagehot.

Intensity or degree of the distinguishing and essential element; spirit; virtue; excellence; -- said of liquors, solutions, etc.; as, the strength of wine or of acids.

Having virtues of great efficacy; or, having a particular quality in a great degree; as, a strong powder or tincture; a strong decoction; strong tea or coffee.