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sing fund, making loans to producers to enable them to hold their products, etc.; -- used chiefly of such action by Brazil.

unds from which they suck the blood of horses, cattle, and other animals, as well as man, chiefly during sleep. They have a cæcal appendage to the stomach, in which the blood with which they gorge themselves is stored.

of nerves distributed over the muscular coats of the blood vessels. Vasomotor center, the chief dominating or general center which supplies all the unstriped muscles of the arterial system with motor nerves, situated in a part of the medulla oblongata; a center of reflex action by the working of which afferent impulses…

the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature; native; indigenous; -- now used chiefly of language; as, English is our vernacular language. "A vernacular disease." Harvey. His skill the vernacular dialect of the Celtic tongue. Fuller. Which in our vernacular idiom may be thus interpreted. Pope.…

Against; as, John Doe versus Richard Roe; -- chiefly used in legal language, and abbreviated to v. or vs.

by another department; especially, in a constitutional government, a power vested in the chief executive to prevent the enactment of measures passed by the legislature. Such a power may be absolute, as in the case of the Tribunes of the People in ancient Rome, or limited, as in the case of the President of the United…

An article of food; provisions; food; victuals; -- used chiefly in the plural. Cowper. Viands of various kinds allure the taste. Pope.

Food; -- now used chiefly in the plural. See Victuals. 2 Chron. xi. 23. Shak. He was not able to keep that place three days for lack of victual. Knolles. There came a fair-hair'd youth, that in his hand Bare victual for the movers. Tennyson. Short allowance of victual. Longfellow.

One of the chief administrative divisions or provinces of the Ottoman Empire; -- formerly called eyalet.

Wine, --chiefly used in Pharmacy in the name of solutions of some medicinal substance in wine; as: vina medicata, medicated wines; vinum opii, wine of opium.

A constellation of the zodiac, now occupying chiefly the sign Libra, and containing the bright star Spica.

age and strength; valorous; valiant; brave. [Obs.] Old Priam's son, amongst them all, was chiefly virtuous. Chapman.

The face, countenance, or look of a person or an animal; -- chiefly applied to the human face. Chaucer. "A visage of demand." Shak. His visage was so marred more than any man. Isa. lii. 14. Love and beauty still that visage grace. Waller.

body, belonging to the class of globulins, obtained from yolk of egg, of which it is the chief proteid constituent, and from the seeds of many plants. From the latter it can be separated in crystalline form.

and other Oriental countries. [Written also visier, vizir, and vizer.] Grand vizier, the chief minister of the Turkish empire; -- called also vizier-azem.

Command; precept; -- now chiefly used in scriptural language. So shall ye perish; because ye would not be obedient unto the voice of the Lord your God. Deut. viii. 20.

An oath administered to a witness, usually before being sworn in chief, requiring him to speak the truth, or make true answers in reference to matters inquired of, to ascertain his competency to give evidence. Greenleaf. Ld. Abinger.

A turning; a time; -- chiefly used in phrases signifying that the part is to be repeated one, two, or more times; as, una volta, once. Seconda volta, second time, points to certain modifications in the close of a repeated strain.

A voluptuous person; one who makes his physical enjoyment his chief care; one addicted to luxury, and the gratification of sensual appetites. A good-humored, but hard-hearted, voluptuary. Sir W. Scott.

A spiral scroll which forms the chief feature of the Ionic capital, and which, on a much smaller scale, is a feature in the Corinthian and Composite capitals. See Illust. of Capital, also Helix, and Stale.