Search the Dictionary

e inmost center of the earth. Shak. The silent, slow, consuming fires, Which on my inmost vitals prey. Addison.

A climbing plant with fragrant blossoms (Clematis vitalba).

An animal base or alkaloid, appearing in the tissue during life; hence, a vital alkaloid, as distinguished from a ptomaine or cadaveric poison.

started and continued in the performance of their several and coöperative functions; the vital force, whether regarded as physical or spiritual.

The blood necessary to life; vital blood. Dryden.

Full of vitality. Spenser.

To dislike greatly; to abhor; to hate. The secret which I loathe. Waller. She loathes the vital sir. Dryden.

A climbing species of Clematis (C. Vitalba).

Deficient in vital energy; feeble; weak; as, a low pulse; made low by sickness.

, intensity, strength, etc., of; as, to lower the temperature of anything; to lower one's vitality; to lower distilled liquors.

rtaining to the quantitative relations of force and matter, as distinguished from mental, vital, chemical, etc.; as, mechanical principles; a mechanical theory; mechanical deposits.

s very largely respiration, circulation, swallowing, and other functions, and is the most vital part of the brain; -- called also bulb of the spinal cord. See Brain.

Fatally vulnerable; vital. Last of all, against himself he turns his sword, but missing the mortal place, with his poniard finishes the work. Milton.

To destroy the organic texture and vital functions of; to produce gangrene in.

Physical constitution or existence; the vital powers; the natural life. "My days of nature." Shak. Oppressed nature sleeps. Shak.

Nerve force. See Vital force, under Vital.

ondition of having the natural powers obstructed in their usual course; the arrest of the vital functions; death. [Poetic] To die, and go we know not where, To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot. Shak.

smerism, and to be developed by various agencies, as by magnets, heat, light, chemical or vital action, etc.; -- called also odyle or the odylic force. [Archaic] That od force of German Reichenbach Which still, from female finger tips, burnt blue. Mrs. Browning.

ard is left is the old maid. -- Old man's beard. (Bot.) (a) The traveler's joy (Clematis Vitalba). So named from the abundant long feathery awns of its fruit.

any one of the large series of substances which, in nature or origin, are connected with vital processes, and include many substances of artificial production which may or may not occur in animals or plants; -- contrasted with Ant: inorganic.