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and villein.] If any of my ansectors was a tenant, and a servant, and held his lands as a villain to his lord, his posterity also must do so, though accidentally they become noble. Jer. Taylor.

Base; vile; mean; depraved; as, a villainous person or wretch.

The quality or state of being a villain, or villainous; extreme depravity; atrocious wickedness; as, the villainy of the seducer. "Lucre of vilanye." Chaucer. The commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy. Shak.

To exceed in villainy.

; extremely wicked, or sinning without restraint; irreclaimably wicked ; as, an abandoned villain.

absurd dream. This proffer is absurd and reasonless. Shak. 'This phrase absurd to call a villain great. Pope. p. 9

ly of training; -- commonly in a good sense; as, an accomplished scholar, an accomplished villain. They . . . show themselves accomplished bees. Holland. Daughter of God and man, accomplished Eve. Milton.

To feign or counterfeit; to simulate. With acted fear the villain thus pursued. Dryden. To act a part, to sustain the part of one of the characters in a play; hence, to simulate; to dissemble. -- To act the part of, to take the character of; to fulfill the duties of.

e skeleton of a man in full stature. Fuller. They brought one Pinch, a hungry, lean-faced villain, A mere anatomy. Shak.

trociously wicked; cruel; mournful; calamitous; horrible. "This day's black fate." "Black villainy." "Arise, black vengeance." "Black day." "Black despair." Shak.

A villain, or tenant in villenage.

A slave; a villain; a serf; a bondman. Carnal, greedy people, without such a precept, would have no mercy upon their poor bondsmen. Derham.

A daring villain; a bandit; one who sets law at defiance; a professional assassin or murderer. Safe from detection, seize the unwary prey. And stab, like bravoes, all who come this way. Churchill.

s weep, burst forth. Milton. And now you burst (ah cruel!) from my arms. Pope. A resolved villain Whose bowels suddenly burst out. Shak. We were the first that ever burst Into that silent sea. Coleridge. To burst upon him like an earthquake. Goldsmith.

eral tongues, And every tongue brings in a several tale, And every tale condemns me for a villain. Shak. As science means knowledge, conscience etymologically means self- knowledge . . . But the English word implies a moral standard of action in the mind as well as a consciousness of our own actions. . . . Conscience i…

creant, n. King Henry. Is it fit this soldier keep his oath Fluellen.He is a craven and a villain else. Shak.

Evincing blaxk or foul traits of character; vile; wicked; atrocious; as, a dark villain; a dark deed. Left him at large to his own dark designs. Milton.

To stamp; to detect; to discover. [R.] You are both deciphered, . . . For villains. Shak.

oughly or intensely colored; hence; firmly fixed in opinions or habits; as, a double-dyed villain.

That which is left; a remnant; a fragment; a scrap; as, odds and ends. I clothe my naked villainy With old odd ends stolen out of holy writ, And seem a saint, when most I play the devil. Shak.