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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. The persons wh…

Belief in the existence of vampires.

er, and Fungi, which contain no chlorophyll, and live on organic matter. (Lichens are now believed to be fungi parasitic on included algæ.}

The quality or power of turning; revolution; rotation. [R.] Locke. I hardly believe he hath from elder times unknown the verticity of the loadstone. Sir T. Browne.

Specifically: Chastity; purity; especially, the chastity of women; virginity. H. I believe the girl has virtue. M. And if she has, I should be the last man in the world to attempt to corrupt it. Goldsmith.

ible church (Theol.), the apparent church of Christ on earth; the whole body of professed believers in Christ, as contradistinguished from the invisible, or real, church, consisting of sanctified persons. -- Visible horizon. Same as Apparent horizon, under Apparent. -- Vis"i*ble*ness, n. -- Vis"i*bly, adv.…

A believer in the theory of vitalism; -- opposed to physicist.

One who believes in the igneous, as opposed to the aqueous, origin of the rocks of the earth's crust; a vulcanist. Cf. Neptunist.

To bear witness; to give testimony or full attestation. He will not believe her until the elector of Hanover shall vouch for the truth of what she has . . . affirmed. Swift.

th him eleven neighbors (called compurgators), who should avow upon their oaths that they believed in their consciences that he spoke the truth. -- Wager policy. (Insurance Law) See under Policy.

pirit of a dead person; to go about as a somnambulist or a specter. I have heard, but not believed, the spirits of the dead May walk again. Shak. When was it she last walked Shak.

tubular excretory organs having external openings, found in many invertebrates. They are believed to be analogous in function to the kidneys of vertebrates. See Illust. under Trematodea, and Sporocyst.

nently, whether by supernatural influences, by witchcraft, or voluntarily; a lycanthrope. Belief in werewolves, formerly general, is not now extinct. The werwolf went about his prey. William of Palerne. The brutes that wear our form and face, The werewolves of the human race. Longfellow.

ot.), the opium-yielding poppy. See Poppy. -- White powder, a kind of gunpowder formerly believed to exist, and to have the power of exploding without noise. [Obs.] A pistol charged with white powder. Beau. & Fl. -- White precipitate. (Old Chem.) See under Precipitate. -- White rabbit. (Zoöl.) (a) The American northe…

The act or manner of expressing in words; style of expression; phrasing. It is believed this wording was above his known style. Milton.

vil men and seducers shall wax worse and worse. 2 Tim. iii. 13. There are men who seem to believe they are not bad while another can be found worse. Rambler. "But I love him." "Love him Worse and worse." Gay.

Even; -- used emphatically. Men may not too rashly believe the confessions of witches, nor yet the evidence against them. Bacon.

To couple; to join with another. "Be ye not unequally yoked with unbelievers." 2 Cor. vi. 14. Cassius, you are yoked with a lamb. Shak.

An atheist or unbeliever; -- name given in the East to those charged with disbelief of any revealed religion, or accused of magical heresies.

A kind of monomania in which the patient believes himself transformed into one of the lower animals.