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Possessing moral excellence or virtue; virtuous; pious; religious; -- said of persons or actions. In all things showing thyself a pattern of good works. Tit. ii. 7.

The quality of being good in any of its various senses; excellence; virtue; kindness; benevolence; as, the goodness of timber, of a soil, of food; goodness of character, of disposition, of conduct, etc.

To adjure; to beseech; to entreat. [Obs.] O dere child, I halse thee, In virtue of the Holy Trinity. Chaucer.

receives any endowment from an ancestor or relation; as, the heir of one's reputation or virtues. And I his heir in misery alone. Pope. Heir apparent. (Law.) See under Apparent. -- Heir at law, one who, after his ancector's death, has a right to inherit all his intestate estate. Wharton (Law Dict.). -- Heir presumpt…

as a white crystalline substance with a sharp tingling taste. It possesses the essential virtues of the plant; -- called also elleborin.

is the help of man. Ps. lx. 11. God is . . . a very present help in trouble. Ps. xlvi. 1. Virtue is a friend and a help to nature. South.

aise; to lift; as, hold up your head. (b) To support; to sustain. "He holds himself up in virtue."Sir P. Sidney.

Occurring rarely; adapted for a special occasion. Courage is but a holiday kind of virtue, to be seldom exercised. Dryden.

Spiritually whole or sound; of unimpaired innocence and virtue; free from sinful affections; pure in heart; godly; pious; irreproachable; guiltless; acceptable to God. Now through her round of holy thought The Church our annual steps has brought. Keble. Holy Alliance (Hist.), a league ostensibly for conserving religion…

pertaining to familiar intercourse; social; affable; conversable; companionable. [R.] His virtues active, chiefly, and homiletical, not those lazy, sullen ones of the cloister. Atterbury.

spect; dignity; courage; fidelity; especially, excellence of character; high moral worth; virtue; nobleness; specif., in men, integrity; uprightness; trustworthness; in women, purity; chastity. If she have forgot Honor and virtue. Shak. Godlike erect, with native honor clad. Milton.

rtain states of mind; caprices; freaks; vagaries; whims. Is my friend all perfection, all virtue and discretion Has he not humors to be endured South.

To impar the value, usefulness, beauty, or pleasure of; to damage; to injure; to harm. Virtue may be assailed, but never hurt. Milton.

real character, disposition, or motives; especially, the assuming of false appearance of virtue or religion; a simulation of goodness. Hypocrisy is the necessary burden of villainy. Rambler. Hypocrisy is the homage vice pays to virtue. La Rochefoucauld (Trans. ).

r outside seeming; one who feigns to be other and better than he is; a false pretender to virtue or piety; one who simulates virtue or piety. The hypocrite's hope shall perish. Job viii. 13. I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart. Shak.

rty is hypothecated; a right which a creditor has in or to the property of his debtor, in virtue of which he may cause it to be sold and the price appropriated in payment of his debt. This is a right in the thing, or jus in re. Pothier. B. R. Curtis. There are but few cases, if any, in our law, where an hypothecation,…

y of the representations in art of the Deity, the persons of the Trinity, angels, saints, virtues, vices, etc.

Electric by virtue of its own peculiar properties; capable of becoming electrified by friction; -- opposed to anelectric. -- n.

contrary to good, in a moral sense; wickedness; depravity; iniquity; wrong; evil. Strong virtue, like strong nature, struggles still, Exerts itself, and then throws off the ill. Dryden.

. Worshipers, who not only immolate to them [the deities] the lives of men, but . . . the virtue and honor of women. Boyle.