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A virgin consecrated to Vesta, and to the service of watching the sacred fire, which was to be perpetually kept burning upon her altar.

A room appendant to a church, in which sacerdotal vestments and sacred utensils are sometimes kept, and where meetings for worship or parish business are held; a sacristy; -- formerly called revestiary. He said unto him that was over the vestry, Bring forth vestments for all the worshipers of Baal. 2 Kings x. 22.…

ing; dress; apparel; vestment; covering; envelope. Piers Plowman. Approach, and kiss her sacred vesture's hem. Milton. Rocks, precipices, and gulfs, appareled with a vesture of plants. Bentley. There polished chests embroidered vestures graced. Pope.

To do violence to, as to anything that should be held sacred or respected; to profane; to desecrate; to break forcibly; to trench upon; to infringe. Violated vows 'Twixt the souls of friend and friend. Shak. Oft have they violated The temple, oft the law, with foul affronts. Milton.

An act of irreverence or desecration; profanation or contemptuous treatment of sacred things; as, the violation of a church. Udall.

A dangerous, treacherous, or malignant person. Who committed To such a viper his most sacred trust Of secrecy. Milton. Horned viper. (Zoöl.) See Cerastes. -- Red viper (Zoöl.), the copperhead. -- Viper fish (Zoöl.), a small, slender, phosphorescent deep-sea fish (Chauliodus Sloanii). It has long ventral and dorsal fi…

A yardland, or measure of land varying from fifteen to forty acres. [Obs.] T. Warton.

zarite." Milton. I pray thee, let me go and pay my vow. 2 Sam. xv. 7. I am combined by a sacred vow. Shak.

r piece of bread (commonly unleavened, circular, and stamped with a crucifix or with the sacred monogram) used in the Eucharist, as in the Roman Catholic Church.

ned the world. Roscommon. Venus now wakes, and wakens love. Milton. They introduce Their sacred song, and waken raptures high. Milton.

An issue of water from the earth; a spring; a fountain. Begin, then, sisters of the sacred well. Milton.

One who pretends to be wise; a wiseacre; a witling. Donne.

-- applied especially to the Scriptures, or the books of the Old and New testaments; as, sacred writ. "Though in Holy Writ not named." Milton. Then to his hands that writ he did betake, Which he disclosing read, thus as the paper spake. Spenser. Babylon, so much spoken of in Holy Writ. Knolles.

A measure of land of uncertain quantity, varying from fifteen to forty acres; a virgate. [Obs.]

The grant by the State of Georgia, by Act of Jan. 7, 1795, of 35,000,000 acres of her western territory, for $500,000, to four companies known as the Yazoo Companies from the region granted ; -- commonly so called, the act being known as the Yazoo Frauds Act, because of alleged corruption of the legislature, every memb…

position in the Huzvâresh, or literary Pehlevi, language, of the Avesta, the Zoroastrian sacred writings; as commonly used, the language (an ancient Persian dialect) in which the Avesta is written.

The sacred writings of the ancient Persian religion, attributed to Zoroaster, but chiefly of a later date.