Search the Dictionary

the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. "Worn out by the labors and vigils of many months." Macaulay. Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card table and those cutting passions which attend them. Addison.

The quality or state of being vigilant; forbearance of sleep; wakefulness.

Vigilance. [Obs.] Fuller.

oid danger, or to provide for safety; wakeful; watchful; circumspect; wary. "Be sober, be vigilant." 1 Pet. v. 8. Sirs, take your places, and be vigilant. Shak.

In a vigilant manner.

A vigil. [Obs.] Chaucer.

A waking up or awakening. [Obs.]

Want of vigilance; neglect of watching; carelessness.

Careful watching. [Obs.]

call to arms for defense; to give notice to (any one) of approaching danger; to rouse to vigilance and action; to put on the alert.

Aroused to vigilance; excited by fear of approaching danger; agitated; disturbed; as, an alarmed neighborhood; an alarmed modesty. The white pavilions rose and fell On the alarmed air. Longfellow.

Watchful; vigilant; active in vigilance.

One very vigilant; a guardian always watchful.

as a person listening. [Obs.] God speaks not the idle and unconcerned hearer, but to the vigilant and arrect. Smalridge.

Not sleeping or lethargic; roused from sleep; in a state of vigilance or action. Before whom awake I stood. Milton. She still beheld, Now wide awake, the vision of her sleep. Keats. He was awake to the danger. Froude.

Watchful; vigilant or on one's guard against danger or difficulty.

shape, of a three-headed dog, guarding the entrance into the infernal regions, Hence: Any vigilant custodian or guardian, esp. if surly.

Vigilance un guarding against evil from every quarter; caution. [Travel] forces circumspectness on those abroad, who at home are nursed in security. Sir H. Wotton.

Watchful; alert. Vigilant and erect attention of mind. Hooker.

Full of heed; regarding with care; cautious; circumspect; attentive; vigilant. Shak. -- Heed"ful*ly, adv. -- Heed"ful*ness, n.