Has two powers, expressed in modern English by two characters, V consonant and U vowel, which ought to be considered as two letters; but as they were long confounded while the two uses were annexed to one form, the old custom still continues to be followed.
U, the vowel, has two sounds; one clear, expressed at other times by eu, as obtuse; the other close, and approaching to the Italian u, or English oo, as obtund.
V, the consonant, has a sound nearly approaching to those of b and f. With b it is by the Spaniards and Gascons always confounded, and in the Runick alphabet is expressed by the same character with f, distinguished only by a diacritical point. Its sound in English is uniform. It is never mute.
VA’CUIST. n.s. [from vacuum.] Aphilosopher that holds a vacuum: opposed to a plenist.
Those spaces, which the vacuists would have to be empty, because they are manifestly devoid of air, the plenists do not prove replenished with subtle matter. BOYLE.
VA’CUUM. n.s. [Latin.] Spaceunoccupied by matter.
Our enquiries about vacuum, or space and atoms, will shew us some good practical lessons. WATTS.
VAIL. n.s. [voile, French. This word is now frequently written veil, from velum, Latin; and the verb veil, from the verb velo; but the old orthography commonly derived it, I believe rightly, from the French.]
1. A curtain; a cover thrown over any thing to be concealed.
While they supposed to lie hid in their secret sins, they were scattered under a dark vail of forgetfulness. WISDOM.
2. A part of female dress, by which the face and part of the shape is concealed.
3. Money given to servants. It is commonly used in the plural. See VALE.
VALE. n.s. [val, Fr. vallis, Latin.]
1. A low ground; a valley; a place between two hills. Vale is a poetical word.
In Ida vale: who knows not Ida vale?
An hundred shepherds woned. SPENSER.
Met in the vale of Arde.
SHAKESPEARE’S HENRY VIII.
Anchises, in a flow’ry vale,
Review’d his muster’d race, and took the tale. DRYDEN.
2. [From avail, profit; or vale, farewell. If from avail, it must be written vail, as Dryden writes. If from vale, which I think is right, it must be vale.] Money given to servants.
Since our knights and senators account
To what their sordid, begging vails amount;
Judge what a wretched share the poor attends,
Whose whole subsistence on those alms depends. DRYDEN.
His revenue, besides vales, amounted to thirty pounds. SWIFT.
VA’LLANCY. n.s. [from valance.] A large wig that shades the face.
But you, loud Sirs, who through your curls look big,
Criticks in plume and white vallancy wig. DRYDEN.
VA’LLEY. n.s. [vallé, Fr. vallis, Latin.] A low ground; a hollow between hills.
Live with me, and be my love,
And we will all the pleasure prove,
That hills and vallies yield. RALEIGH.
Vallies are the intervals betwixt mountains. WOODWARD.
Sweet interchange of hill and valley. MILTON.
VA’LUE. n.s. [value, Fr. valor, Lat.]
1. Price; worth.
Ye are physicians of no value.
BIBLE JOB, XIII.
2. High rate.
Cæsar is well acquainted with your virtues,
And therefore sets this value on your life:
Let him but know the price of Cato’s friendship,
And name your terms.
ADDISON’S CATO.
3. Rate; price equal to the worth of the thing bought.
He sent him money; it was with this obliging testimony, that his design was not to pay him the value of his pictures, because they were above any price.
DRYDEN.
VALVE. n.s. [valva, Latin.]
1. A folding door.
Swift through the valves the visionary fair
Repass’d. POPE’S ODYSSEY, B. IV.
2. Any thing that opens over the mouth of a vessel.
This air, by the opening of the valve, and forcing up of the sucker, may be driven out. BOYLE’S WORKS.
3. [In anatomy.] A kind of membrane, which opens in certain vessels to admit the blood, and shuts to prevent its regress.
The arteries, with a contractile force, drive the blood still forward; it being hindered from going backward by the valves of the heart. ARBUTHNOT ON ALIMENTS.
To VAMP. v.a. [This is supposed probably enough by Skinner to be derived from avant, Fr. before; and to mean laying on a new outside.] To piece an old thing with some new part.
You wish
To vamp a body with a dangerous physick,
That’s sure of death without. SHAKESPEARE’S CORIOLANUS.
This opinion hath been vamped up by Cardan. BENTLEY.
I had never much hopes of your vampt play. SWIFT.
VA’MPER. n.s. [from vamp.] One who pieces out an old thing with something new.
VA’PORER. n.s. [from vapour.] Aboaster; a braggart.
This shews these vaporers, to what scorn they expose themselves.
GOVERNMENT OF THE TONGUE.
VA’SE. n.s. [vase, Fr. vasa, Latin.] A vessel; generally a vessel rather for show than use.
Each silver vase in mystick order laid.
POPE.
VA’TICIDE. n.s. [vates and cÆdo, Latin.] A murderer of poets.
The caitiff vaticide conceiv’d a prayer.
POPE’S DUNCIAD.
VA’UDEVIL. n.s. [vaudeville, Fr.] A song common among the vulgar, and sung about the streets, Trevoux. A ballad; a trivial strain.
UBI’QUITARY. adj. [from ubique, Latin.] Existing every where.
For wealth and an ubiquitary commerce, none can exceed her. HOWEL.
VE’HICLE. n.s. [vehiculum, Latin.]
1. That in which any thing is carried.
Evil spirits might very properly appear in vehicles of flame, to terrify and surprize. ADDISON’S GUARDIAN.
2. That part of a medicine which serves to make the principal ingredient potable.
That the meat descends by one passage; the drink, or moistening vehicle by another, is a popular tenent. BROWN.
3. That by means of which any thing is conveyed.
The gaiety of a diverting word, serves as a vehicle to convey the force and meaning of a thing. L’ESTRANGE.
VEIL. n.s. [velum, Latin.]
1. A cover to conceal the face.
To feed his fiery lustful eye,
He snatch’d the veil that hung her face before. FAIRY QUEEN.
The Paphian queen from that fierce battle borne,
With gored hand, and veil so rudely torn,
Like terror did among the immortals breed. WALLER.
The famous painter cou’d allow no place
For private sorrow in a prince’s face:
Yet, that his piece might not exceed belief,
He cast a veil upon supposed grief. WALLER.
As veils transparent cover, but not hide,
Such metaphors appear when right apply’d.
When through the phrase we plainly see the sense,
Truth with such obvious meanings will dispense. GRANVILLE.
She accepts the hero, and the dame
Wraps in her vail, and frees from sense of shame. POPE.
2. A cover; a disguise.
I will pluck the borrow’d veil of modesty from the so seeming Mrs. Page; divulge
Page himself for a secure and wilful Acteon. SHAKESPEARE’S MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR.
Knock on my heart; for thou hast skill to find
If it sound solid, or be fill’d with wind;
And thro’ the veil of words thou view’st the naked mind. DRYDEN.
The ill-natured man exposes those failings in human nature, which the other would cast a veil over. ADDISON.
VELLICA’TION. n.s. [vellicatio, Lat.] Twitching; stimulation.
All purgers have a kind of twitching and vellication, besides the griping, which cometh of wind. BACON.
There must be a particular motion and vellication imprest upon the nerves, else the sensation of heat will not be produced. WATTS’S IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND.
To VEND. v.a. [vendre, Fr. vendo, Lat.] To sell; to offer to sale.
He had a great parcel of glasses packed up, which not having the occasion he expected to vend, and make use of, lay by him. BOYLE.
VENDEE. n.s. [from vend.] One to whom any thing is sold.
If a vicar sows his glebe, or if he sells his corn, and the vendee cuts it, he must pay the tithes to the parson. AYLIFFE.
VE’NDER. n.s. [vendeur, Fr. from vend.] A seller.
Where the consumption of commodity is, the venders seat themselves. GRAUNT.
Those make the most noise who have the least to sell, which is very observable in the venders of card-matches. ADDISON.
VE’NDIBLE. adj. [vendibilis, Latin.] Saleable; marketable.
Silence only is commendable
In a neat’s tongue dried, and a maid not vendible. SHAKESPEARE.
This so profitable and vendible a merchandize, riseth not to a proportionable enhancement with other less beneficial commodities. CAREW.
The ignorant mine-man, aiming only at the obtaining a quantity of such a metal as may be vendible under such a determinate name, has neither the design nor skill to make nice separations of the heterogeneous bodies. BOYLE.
VE’NDIBLENESS. n.s. [from vendible.] The state of being saleable.
VE’NDIBLY.228 adv. [from vendible.] In a saleable manner.
VENDITA’TION. n.s. [venditatio, from vendito, Latin.] Boastful display.
Some, by a cunning protestation against all reading, and venditation of their own naturals, think to divert the sagacity of their readers from themselves, and cool the scent of their own fox-like thefts; when yet they are so rank as a man may find whole pages together usurped from one author. BEN JONSON.
VENDI’TION. n.s. [venditio, Fr. vendition, Latin.] Sale; the act of selling.
VE’NEFICE. n.s. [veneficium, Latin.] The practice of poisoning.
VENE’REAL. adj. [venereus, Latin.]
1. Relating to love.
These are no venereal signs;
Vengeance is in my heart, death in my hand. SHAKESPEARE.
Then swol’n with pride, into the snare I fell,
Of fair fallacious looks, venereal trains,
Soften’d with pleasure and voluptuous life.
MILTON.
They are averse to venereal pleasure. ADDISON.
2. Consisting of copper, called venus by chemists.
Blue vitriol, how venereal and unsophisticated soever, rubbed upon the whetted blade of a knife, will not impart its latent colour. BOYLE.
VENE’REOUS. adj. [from venery.] Libidinous; lustful.
The male is lesser than the female, and very venereous. DERHAM.
VE’NTIDUCT. n.s. [ventus and ductus, Latin.] A passage for the wind.
Having been informed of divers ventiducts,
I wish I had had the good fortune, when I was at Rome, to take notice of these organs. BOYLE.
To VE’NTILATE. v.a. [ventilo, Latin.]
1. To fan with wind.
In close, low, and dirty alleys, the air is penn’d up, and obstructed from being ventilated by the winds. HARVEY.
Miners, by perflations with large bellows, letting down tubes, and sinking new shafts, give free passage to the air, which ventilates and cools the mines. WOODWARD.
2. To winnow; to fan.
3. To examine; to discuss.
Nor is the right of the party, nor the judicial process in right of that party so far perempted; but that the same may be begun again, and ventilated de novo. AYLIFFE.
VE′NTILATION. n.s. [ventilatio, Lat. from ventilate.]
1. The act of fanning; the state of being fanned.
The soul, worn with too frequent culture, must lie fallow, till it has recruited its exhausted salts, and again enriched itself by the ventilations of the air. ADDISON.
2. Vent; utterance. Not in use.
To his secretary Doctor Mason, whom he let lie in a pallet near him, for natural ventilation of his thoughts, he would break out into bitter eruptions. WOTTON’S BUCKINGHAM.
3. Refrigeration.
Procure the blood a free course, ventilation and transpiration by suitable and ecphractic purges. HARVEY.
VENTILA′TOR. n.s. [from ventilate.] An instrument contrived by Dr. Hale to supply close places with fresh air.
VENTRI′LOQUIST. n.s. [ventriloque, Fr. venter and loquor, Lat.] One who speaks in such a manner as that the sound seems to issue from his belly.
VERB. n.s. [verbe, Fr. verbum, Lat.] A part of speech signifying existence, or some modification thereof, as action, passion. And withal some disposition or intention of the mind relating thereto, as of affirming, denying, interrogating, commanding. Clarke’s Latin Grammar.
Men usually talk of a noun and a verb. SHAKESPEARE.
VE′RBAL. adj. [verbal, Fr. verbalis, Latin.]
1. Spoken, not written.
2. Oral; uttered by mouth.
Made she no verbal quest? ——
—— Yes; once or twice she heav’d the name of father
Pantingly forth, as if it prest her heart. SHAKESPEARE.
3. Consisting in mere words.
If young African for fame,
His wasted country freed from Punick rage,
The deed becomes unprais’d, the man at least;
And loses, though but verbal, his reward. MILTON.
Being at first out of the way to science, in the progress of their inquiries they must lose themselves, and the truth, in a verbal labyrinth. GLANVILLE.
It was such a denial or confession of him as would appear in preaching: but this is managed in words and verbal profession. SOUTH.
4. Verbose; full of words. Out of use.
I am sorry
You put me to forget a lady’s manners,
By being so verbal. SHAKESPEARE.
5. Minutely exact in words.
6. Literal; having word answering to word.
Neglect the rules each verbal critick lays,
For not to know some trifles is a praise. POPE.
Whosoever offers at verbal translation, shall have the misfortune of that young traveller, who lost his own language abroad, and brought home no other instead of it. DENHAM.
The verbal copier is incumber’d with so many difficulties at once, that he can never disentangle himself from all. DRYDEN.
7. [verbal, Fr. in grammar.] A verbal noun is a noun derived from a verb.
VERBA′LITY. n.s. [from verbal.] Mere bare words.
Sometimes he will seem to be charmed with words of holy scripture, and to fly from the letter and dead verbality, who must only start at the life and animated materials thereof. BROWN’S VULGAR ERROURS.
VE′RDANT. n.s. [verdoiant, Fr.viridans, Lat.] Green. This word is so lately naturalized, that Skinner could find it only in a dictionary.
Each odorous bushy shrub
Fenc’d up the verdant wall. MILTON.
VERSE. n.s. [vers, Fr. versus, Latin.]
1. A line consisting of a certain succession of sounds, and number of syllables.
Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
With feigning voice, verses of feigning love. SHAKESPEARE.
2. [verset, Fr.] A section or paragraph of a book.
Thus far the questions proceed upon the construction of the first earth; in the following verses they proceed upon the demolition of that earth. BURNET.
3. Poetry; lays; metrical language.
Verse embalms virtue: and tombs and thrones of rhymes
Preserve frail transitory fame as much
As spice doth body from air’s corrupt touch. DONNE.
If envious eyes their hurtful rays have cast,
More pow’rful verse shall free thee from the blast. DRYDEN.
Whilst she did her various pow’r dispose;
Virtue was taught in verse, and Athens’ glory rose. PRIOR.
You compose
In splay-foot verse, or hobbling prose. PRIOR.
4. A piece of poetry.
Let this verse, my friend, be thine. POPE.
VETERINARIAN. n.s. [veterinarius, Lat.] One skilled in the diseases of cattle.
That a horse has no gall, is not only swallowed by common farriers, but also receiv’d by good veterinarians, and some who have laudably discoursed upon horses. BROWN.
VICECHA′NCELLOR. n.s. [vice-cancellarius, Latin.] The second magistrate of the universities.
VI′LLAIN. n.s. [vilain, Fr. villanus, low Latin.]
1. One who held by a base tenure.
The Irish inhabiting the lands fully conquered, being in condition of slaves and villains, did render a greater revenue, than if they had been made the king’s free subjects. DAVIES.
2. A wicked wretch.
We were prevented by a dozen armed knights, or rather villains, who, using this time of their extreme feebleness, all together set upon them. SIDNEY.
O villain! villain! his very opinion in the letter. Abhorred villain! unnatural, detested, brutish villain! SHAKESPEARE.
What in the world,
That names me traitor, villain -like he lies. SHAKESPEARE.
He was stabbed to the heart by the hand of a villain, upon the mere impious pretence of his being odious to the parliament. CLARENDON.
Calm thinking villains, whom no faith could fix;
Of crooked counsels, and dark politicks. POPE.
VILLANY. n.s. [from villain; villonnie, old French.]
1. Wickedness; baseness; depravity.229
Trust not those cunning waters of his eyes;
For villainy is not without such a rheum:
And he, long traded in it, makes it seem
Like rivers of remorse and innocence. SHAKESPEARE.
He is the prince’s jester; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany. SHAKESPEARE.
2. A wicked action; a crime.
No villany, or flagitious action was ever yet committed; but a lie was first or last the principal engine to effect it. SOUTH.
Such villainies rous’d Horace into wrath;
And ’tis more noble to pursue his path,
Than an old tale. DRYDEN.
VIRTUO′SO. n.s. [Italian.] A man skilled in antique or natural curiosities; a man studious of painting, statuary, or architecture.
Methinks those generous virtuosi dwell in a higher region than other mortals. GLANVILLE.
Virtuoso, the Italians call a man who loves the noble arts, and is a critick in them. And amongst our French painters, the word vertueux is understood in the same signification. DRYDEN.
This building was beheld with admiration by the virtuosi of that time. TATLER, NO. 52.
Showers of rain are now met with in every water-work; and the virtuoso’s of France covered a little vault with artificial snow. ADDISON.
VI′SAGE. n.s. [visage, Fr. visaggio, Italian.] Face; countenance; look. It is now rarely used but with some ideas of dislike or horrour.
Phebe doth behold
Her silver visage in the watry glass,
Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass. SHAKESPEARE.
When she shall hear this of thee, with her nails
She’ll flea thy wolfish visage. SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR.
Whereto serves mercy,
But to confront the visage of offence. SHAKESPEARE’S HAMLET.
With hostile frown,
And visage all inflam’d, first thus began.MILTON.
By the rout, that made the hideous roar,
His goary visage down the stream was sent;
Down the swift Hebrus to the Lesbian shore. MILTON.
Love and beauty still that visage grace;
Death cannot fright ’em from their wonted place. WALLER.
VI′STA. n.s. [Italian.] View; prospect through an avenue.
In St. Peter’s, when a man stands under the dome, if he looks upwards, he is astonished at the spacious hollow of the cupola, that makes one of the beautifullest vista’s that the eye can pass through.
ADDISON’S REMARKS ON ITALY.
The finish’d garden to the view
Its vista’s opens, and its alleys green. THOMSON’S SPRING.
VITE′LLARY. n.s. [from vitellus, Latin.] The place where the yolk of the egg swims in the white.
A greater difficulty in the doctrine of eggs is, how the sperm of the cock attaineth into every egg; since the vitellary, or place of the yolk, is very high. BROWN’S VULGAR ERROURS.
VI′TIOUS. adj. [vicieux, Fr. vitiosus, Latin.]
1. Corrupt; wicked; opposite to virtuous. It is rather applied to habitual faults, than criminal actions.230
Make known
It is no vitious blot, murder, or foulness That hath depriv’d me of your grace.
SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR.
Witness th’ irreverent son
Of him who built the ark; who, for the shame
Done to his father, heard his heavy curse,
‘Servant of servants,’ on his vitious race. MILTON.
Wit’s what the vitious fear, the virtuous shun;
By fools ’tis hated, and by knaves undone. POPE.
No troops abroad are so ill disciplin’d as the English; which cannot well be otherwise, while the common soldiers have before their eyes the vitious example of their leaders. SWIFT.
2. Corrupt; having physical ill qualities.
When vitious language contends to be high, it is full of rock, mountain, and pointedness. BEN JONSON.
Here from the vicious air and sickly skies,
A plague did on the dumb creation rise. DRYDEN.
VIVE. adj. [vif, Fr. vivus, Latin.] Lively; forcible; pressing.
By a vive and forcible perswasion, he mov’d him to a war upon Flanders. BACON.
VIZ. n.s. [This word is videlicet, written with a contraction.] To wit; that is. A barbarous form of an unnecessary word.
That which so oft by sundry writers
Has been apply’d t’ almost all fighters,
More justly may b’ ascrib’d to this,
Than any other warrior, viz.
None ever acted both parts bolder,
Both of a chieftain and a soldier. HUDIBRAS.
The chief of all signs which the Almighty endued man with, is humane voice, and the several modifications thereof by the organs of speech, viz. the letters of the alphabet, form’d by the several motions of the mouth. HOLDER.
Let this be done relatively, viz. one thing greater or stronger, casting the rest behind, and rendering it less sensible by its opposition. DRYDEN’S DUFRESNOY.
U′MBREL, UMBRELLA. n.s. [from umbra, Lat.] A skreen used in hot countries to keep off the sun, and in others to bear off the rain.
I can carry your umbrella, and fan your ladyship. DRYDEN.
Good housewives
Defended by th’ umbrella’s oily shed, Safe through the wet on clinking pattens tread. GAY.
UN. A Saxon privative or negative particle answering to in of the Latins, and a of the Greeks, on, Dutch. It is placed almost at will before adjectives and adverbs. All instances of this kind of composition cannot therefore be inserted; but I have collected a number sufficient, perhaps more than sufficient, to explain it.231
The examples however, though numerous, might have easily been made more; for almost every adjective has a substantive and an adverb adhering to it, as unfaithful, unfaithfulness, unfaithfully. Un is prefixed to adjectives with their derivatives, as unapt, unaptness, unaptly; and to passive participles as hurt, unhurt; favoured, unfavoured: it is prefixed likewise to participial adjectives, as pleasing, unpleasing, but rarely in the verbal sense expressing action; we cannot say the dart flew unwounding, though we say the man escaped unwounded. In and un may be thus distinguished. To words merely English we prefix un, as unfit; to words borrowed in the positive sense, but made negative by ourselves, we prefix un, as generous, ungenerous. When we borrow both words we retain the Latin or French in, as elegant, inelegant; politick, impolitick. Before substantives if they have the English termination ness, as unfitness, ungraciousness; it is proper to prefix un if they have the Latin or French terminations in tude, ice, or ence; and for the most part if they end in ty the negative in is put before them, as unapt, unaptness, inaptitude; unjust, injustice; imprudence; unfaithful, unfaithfulness, infidelity.
UNABA′SHED. adj. [from abashed.] Not shamed; not confused by modesty.
Earless on high, stood unabash’d Defoe,
And Tutchin flagrant from the scourge below. POPE.
UNA′CCURATE. adj. [from accurate.] Not exact.
Gallileo using an unaccurate way, defined the air to be in weight to water but as one to four hundred. BOYLE.
UNA′LTERABLE. adj. Unchangeable; immutable.
The law of nature, consisting in a fixed, unalterable relation of one nature to another, is indispensable. SOUTH.
They fixt unalterable laws,
Settling the same effect on the same cause. CREECH.
The truly upright man is inflexible in his uprightness, and unalterable in his purpose. ATTERBURY.
To UNBE′D. v.a. To raise from a bed.
Eels unbed themselves, and stir at the noise of thunder. WALTON’S ANGLER.
UNBOO′KISH. adj.
1. Not studious of books.
2. Not cultivated by erudition.
As he shall smile, Othello shall go mad;
And his unbookish jealousy must construe
Poor Cassio’s smiles, gestures, and light behaviour,
Quite in the wrong. SHAKESPEARE’S OTHELLO.
UNCA′PABLE. adj. [incapable, Fr. incapax, Lat.] Not capable; not susceptible.232
Thou art come to answer
A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch,
Uncapable of pity, void and empty
From any dram of mercy. SHAKESPEARE’S MERCHANT OF VENICE.
He who believes himself uncapable of pardon, goes on without any care of reforming. HAMMOND.
This, whilst they are under the deceit of it, makes them uncapable of conviction; and they applaud themselves as zealous champions for truth, when indeed they are contending for error. LOCKE.
UNCI′VIL. adj. [incivil, Fr. incivilis, Lat.] Unpolite; not agreeable to rules of elegance, or complaisance.
Your undutiful, uncivil, and uncharitable dealing in this your book, hath detected you. WHITGIFT.
They love me well, yet I have much to do, To keep me from uncivil outrages. SHAKESPEARE.
My friends are so unreasonable, that they would have me be uncivil to him. SPECTATOR, NO. 475.
UNCO′MEATABLE. adj. Inaccessible; unattainable. A low, corrupt word.
UNCONCE′IVABLE. adj. Not to be understood; not to be comprehended by the mind.
In the communication of motion by impulse, we can have no other conception, but of the passing of motion out of one body into another; which is as obscure and unconceivable, as how our minds move or stop our bodies by thought. LOCKE.
Those atoms wond’rous small must be,
Small to an unconceivable degree;
Since though these radiant spoils dispers’d in air,
Do ne’er return, and ne’er the sun repair. BLACKMORE.
UNCRO’UDED. adj. Not straitened by want of room.
An amphitheatre,
On its publick shows, unpeopled Rome,
And held uncrouded nations in its womb. ADDISON.
UNDENI’ABLE. adj. Such ascannot be gainsaid.
That age which my grey hairs make seem more than it is, hath not diminished in me the power to protect an undeniable verity. SIDNEY.
Of those of the second class, we have a plain and undeniable certainty. WOODWARD’S NATURAL HISTORY.
UNDERBEA’RER. n.s. [under and bearer.] In funerals, those that sustain the weight of the body, distinct from those who are bearers of ceremony, and only hold up the pall.
UNDERFE’LLOW. n.s. [under and fellow.] A mean man; a sorry wretch.
They carried him to a house of a principal officer, who with no more civility, though with much more business than those underfellows had shewed, in captious manner put interrogatories unto him. SIDNEY.
U’NDERPLOT. n.s. [under and plot.]
1. A series of events proceeding collaterally with the main story of a play, and subservient to it.
In a tragi-comedy, there is to be but one main design; and though there be an underplot, yet it is subservient to the chief fable. DRYDEN’S DEDICATION TO JUVENAL.
2. A clandestine scheme.
The husband is so misled by tricks, and so lost in a crooked intrigue, that he still suspects an underplot. ADDISON.
UNDERSO’NG. n.s. [under and song.] Chorus; burthen of a song.
So ended she; and all the rest around To her redoubled that her undersong. SPENSER.
The challenge to DamÆtas shall belong; Menalcas shall sustain his undersong; Each in his turn your tuneful numbers bring. DRYDEN.
UNDERSTRA’PPER. n.s. [under and strap.] A petty fellow; an inferior agent.
Every understrapper perk’d up, and expected a regiment, or his son must be a major. SWIFT.
UNDERWRI’TER. n.s. [from underwrite.] An insurer; so called from writing his name under the conditions.
UNDETE’RMINATENESS, UNDETERMINATION. n.s. [from undeterminate.233]
1. Uncertainty; indecision.
He is not left barely to the undetermination, incertainty and unsteadiness of the operation of his faculties, without a certain, secret, predisposition of them to what is right. HALE.
2. The state of not being fixed, or invincibly directed.
The idea of a free agent is undeterminateness to one part, before he has made choice. MORE’S DIVINE DIALOGUES.
To UNDRE’SS. v.a. [from dress.]
1. To divest of cloaths; to strip.
Undress you, and come now to bed. SHAKESPEARE.
All were stol’n aside,
To counsel and undress the bride. SUCKLING.
Her fellows press’d,
And the reluctant nymph by force undress’d. ADDISON’S OVID.
2. To divest of ornaments, or the attire of ostentation.
Undress’d at evening, when she found
Their odours lost, their colours past,
She chang’d her look. PRIOR.
U’NDRESS. n.s. A loose or negligent dress.
Reform her into ease,
And put her in undress to make her please. DRYDEN.
UNDRE’SSED. adj.
1. Not regulated.
Thy vineyard lies half prun’d, and half undress’d.
DRYDEN.
2. Not prepared for use.
The common country people wore perones, shoes of undressed leather. ARBUTHNOT ON COINS.
UNE’QUITABLE. adj. Not impartial; not just.
We force him to stand to those measures which we think too unequitable to press upon a murderer. DECAY OF PIETY.
UNFI’nished. adj. Incomplete;not brought to an end; not brought to perfection; imperfect; wanting the last hand.
It is for that such outward ornament
Was lavish’d on their sex, that inward gifts
Were left for haste unfinish’d. MILTON.
I dedicate to you a very unfinished piece. DRYDEN.
His hasty hand left his pictures so unfinished, that the beauty in the picture faded sooner than in the person after whom it was drawn SPECTATOR, no. 83.
This collection contains not only such pieces as come under our review, but many others, even unfinished. SWIFT.
UNFRE’QUENT. adj. Uncommon;not happening often.
Part thereof is visible unto any situation; but being only discoverable in the night, and when the air is clear, it becomes unfrequent. BROWNE’S VULGAR ERROURS.
UNGE’NIAL. adj. Not kind orfavourable to nature.
The northern shires have a more cloudy, ungenial air, than any part of Ireland. SWIFT TO POPE.
Sullen seas wash th’ ungenial pole. THOMSON.
UNGRAMMA’TICAL.234 adj. [from un and grammatical.] Not according to grammar.
UNINDI’FFERENT. adj. Partial; leaning to a side.
His opinion touching the catholick church was as unindifferent, as, touching our church, the opinion of them that favour this pretended reformation is. HOOKER, B. iv.
UNINTE’LLIGENT. adj. Notknowing; not skilful; not having any consciousness.
We will give you sleepy drinks, that your senses may be unintelligent of our insufficience. SHAKESPEARE’S WINTER TALE.
The visible creation is far otherwise apprehended by the philosophical enquirer, than the unintelligent vulgar. GLANVILLE.
This conclusion, if men allow’d of, they would not destroy ill-formed productions. Ay, but these monsters. Let them be so; what will your drivelling, unintelligent, untractable changeling be? LOCKE.
Why then to works of nature is assign’d An author unintelligent and blind; When ours proceed from choice? BLACKMORE.
The obvious products of unintelligent nature. BENTLEY.
U’NIVERSE. n.s. [univers, Fr.univ-ersum, Lat.] The general system of things.
Creeping murmur, and the poring dark, Fills the wide vessel of the universe. SHAKESPEARE.
God here sums up all into man; the whole into a part; the universe into an individual. SOUTH’S SERMONS.
Whose word call’d out this universe to birth. PRIOR.
UNIVE’RSITY. n.s. [universitas, Lat.] A school, where all the arts and faculties are taught and studied.
While I play the good husband at home, my son and servants spend all at the university. SHAKESPEARE’S TAMING OF THE SHREW.
The universities, especially Aberdeen, flourished under many excellent scholars, and very learned men. CLARENDON.
UNI’VOCAL. adj. [univocus, Lat.]
1. Having one meaning.
Univocal words are such as signify but one idea, or but one sort of thing: equivocal words are such as signify two or more different ideas, or different sorts of objects. WATTS.
2. Certain; regular; persuing always one tenour.
This conceit makes putrefactive generations correspondent unto seminal productions; and conceives inequivocal effects, and univocal conformity unto the efficient. BROWN.
To UNLOO’SE. v.a. To loose. A word perhaps barbarous and ungrammatical, the particle prefixed implying negation; so that to unloose, is properly to bind.
York, unloose your long imprison’d thoughts,
And let thy tongue be equal with thy heart. SHAKESPEARE.
The weak, wanton Cupid, Shall from your neck unloose his am’rous fold;
And, like a dew-drop from the lion’s mane,
Be shook to air.
SHAKESPEARE’S TROILUS AND CRESSIDA.
Turn him to any cause of policy;
The gordian knot of it he will unloose, Familiar as his garter. SHAKESPEARE’S HENRY V.
It rested in you,
T’ unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas’d. SHAKESPEARE.
The latchet of his shoes I am not worthy to stoop down and unloose. BIBLE MARK, I. 7.
He that should spend all his time in tying inextricable knots, only to baffle the industry of those that should attempt to unloose them, would be thought not much to have served his generation. DECAY OF PIETY.
UNME’RCHANTABLE. adj. Unsaleable; not vendible.
They feed on salt, unmerchantable pilchard. CAREW.
UNO’BVIOUS. adj. Not readily occurring.
Of all the metals, not any so constantly discloseth its unobvious colour, as copper. BOYLE ON COLOURS.
UNPE’NSIONED. adj. Not kept independance by a pension.
Could pension’d Boileau lash in honest strain
Flatt’rers and bigots, ev’n in Louis’ reign;
And I not strip the gilding off a knave,
Unplac’d, unpension’d, no man’s heir or slave? pope.
UNPU’BLICK. adj. Private; not generally known.
Virgins must be retired and unpublick: for all freedom of society is a violence done to virginity, not in its natural, but in its moral capacity; that is, it loses part of its severity and strictness, by publishing that person, whose work is religion, whose thoughts must dwell in heaven. TAYLOR.
UNPU’BLISHED. adj.
1. Secret; unknown.
All blest secrets; All you unpublish’d virtues of the earth, Spring with my tears. SHAKESPEARE’S KING LEAR.
2. Not given to the publick.
Apply your care wholly to those which are unpublish’d. POPE.
To UNRI’DDLE. v.a. To solve anenigma; to explain a problem.
Some kind power unriddle where it lies, Whether my heart be faulty, or her eyes! SUCKLING.
The Platonick principles will not unriddle the doubt. GLANVILLE.
A reverse often clears up the passage of an old poet, as the poet often serves to unriddle the reverse. ADDISON.
To UNRI’P. v.a. [This word is improper; there being no difference between rip and unrip; and the negative particle is therefore of no force; yet it is well authorised.] To cut open.
Like a traitor Didst break that vow, and, with thy treach’rous blade,
Unrip’dst the bowels of thy sov’reign’s son. SHAKESPEARE.
He could not now, with his honour, so unrip, and put a lye upon all that he had said and done before, as to deliver him up. BACON’S HENRY VII.
We are angry with searchers, when they break open trunks, and unrip packs, and open sealed letters. TAYLOR.
Cato well observes, that friendship ought not to be unripped, but unstitched. COLLIER.
UNSINCE’RE. adj. [insincerus, Lat.]
1. Not hearty; not faithful.
2. Not genuine; impure; adulterated.
I have so often met with chymical preparations, which I have found unsincere, that I dare scarce trust any. BOYLE.
3. Not sound; not solid.
Myrrha was joy’d the welcome news to hear; But, clogg’d with guilt, the joy was unsincere. DRYDEN.
UNSOPHI’STICATED. adj. Not adulterated.235
The humour and tunicles are purely transparent, to let in light and colours, unfouled and unsophisticated by any inward tincture. MORE’S ANTIDOTE AGAINST ATHEISM.
Blue vitriol, how venereal and unsophisticated soever, rubb’d upon the whetted blade of a knife, will not impart its latent colour. BOYLE.
If authors will not keep close to truth by unvaried terms, and plain, unsophisticated arguments; yet it concerns readers not to be imposed on, by fallacies. LOCKE.
UNTRO’LLED. adj. Not bowled; not rolled along.
Hard fate! untroll’d is now the charming dye;
The playhouse and the parks unvisited must lie. DRYDEN.
To UNTWI’ST. v.a. To separate any things involved in each other, or wrapped up on themselves.
Untwisting his deceitful clew, He ’gan to weave a web of wicked guile. FAIRY QUEEN.
The interest of prince and people is so enfolded in a mutual embrace, that they cannot be untwisted without pulling a limb off. TAYLOR’S RULE OF LIVING HOLY.
Untwisting all the chains that tie
The hidden soul of harmony. MILTON.
No, I’ll untwist you;
I have occasion for your stay on earth. DRYDEN.
Tarred hempen ropes cut small and untwisted, are beneficial for lands. MORTIMER’S HUSBANDRY.
Untwist a wire, and from her gums
A set of teeth completely comes. SWIFT.
To UNVA’IL. v.a. To uncover; to strip of a veil. This word is unvail, or unveil, according to its etymology. See VAIL, and VEIL.
Troy reviv’d, her mourning face unvail’d. DENHAM.
Now unveil’d, the toilet stands display’d,
Each silver vase in mystick order laid. POPE.
To UNVE’IL. v.a. [See VEIL and VAIL.]
1. To uncover; to divest of a veil.
The moon,
Apparent queen, unveil’d her peerless light. MILTON.
To the limpid stream direct thy way, When the gay morn unveils her smiling ray. POPE.
2. To disclose; to show.
The providence, that’s in a watchful state,
Knows almost every grain of Pluto’s gold;
Does ev’n our thoughts unveil in their dumb cradles. SHAKESPEARE.
UNWA’RES. adv. Unexpectedly; before any caution, or expectation.
She, by her wicked arts,
Too false and strong for earthly skill or might,
Unwares me wrought unto her wicked will. FAIRY QUEEN.
His loving mother came upon a day
Unto the woods, to see her little son,
And chanc’d unwares to meet him in the way,
After his sports and cruel pastime done. FAIRFAX, B. I.
Still we sail, while prosperous blows the wind,
Till on some secret rock unwares we light. FAIRFAX.
UNWA’YED. adj. Not used to travel; not seasoned in the road.
Beasts, that have been rid off their legs, are as much for a man’s use, as colts that are unwayed, and will not go at all. SUCKLING.
UNWRI’TING. adj. Not assuming the character of an author.
The peace of the honest unwriting subject was daily molested. ARBUTHNOT.
VOCA’BULARY. n.s. [vocabula-rium, Lat. vocabulaire, Fr.] A dictionary; a lexicon; a word-book.
Some have delivered the polity of spirits, and that they stand in awe of conjurations, which signify nothing, not only in the dictionary of man, but in the subtiler vocabulary of Satan. BROWN’S VULGAR ERROURS.
Among other books, we should be furnished with vocabularies and dictionaries of several sorts. WATTS.
VO’CATIVE. n.s. [vocatif, Fr. voca-tivus, Lat.] The grammatical case used in calling or speaking to.
VO’IDER. n.s. [from void.] A basket, in which broken meat is carried from the table.
A voider for the nonce,
I wrong the devil should I pick their bones. CLEAVELAND.
VOLE. n.s. [vole, Fr.] A deal at cards, that draws the whole tricks.
Past six, and not a living soul!
I might by this have won a vole. SWIFT.
VOLCA’NO. n.s. [Italian, from Vulcan.] A burning mountain.
Navigators tell us there is a burning mountain in an island, and many volcano’s and fiery hills. 236 brown.
When the Cyclops o’er their anvils sweat,
From the volcano’s gross eruptions rise,
And curling sheets of smoke obscure the skies. GARTH.
Subterraneous minerals ferment, and cause earthquakes, and cause furious eruptions of volcano’s, and tumble down broken rocks. BENTLEY’S SERMONS.
VO’LERY. n.s. [volerie, Fr.] A flight of birds.
An old boy, at his first appearance, is sure to draw on him the eyes and chirping of the whole town volery; amongst which, there will not be wanting some birds of prey, that will presently be on the wing for him. LOCKE.
VO’LUBLE. adj. [volubilis, Lat.]
1. Formed so as to roll easily; formed so as to be easily put in motion.
Neither the weight of the matter of which a cylinder is made, nor its round voluble form, which, meeting with a precipice, do necessarily continue the motion of it, are any more imputable to that dead, choiceless creature in its first motion. HAMMOND.
The adventitious corpuscles may produce stability in the matter they pervade, by expelling thence those voluble particles, which, whilst they continued, did by their shape unfit for cohesion, or, by their motion, oppose coalition. BOYLE.
2. Rolling; having quick motion.
This less voluble earth,
By shorter flight to th’ east, had left him there. MILTON.
Then voluble, and bold; now hid, now seen,
Among thick-woven arborets. MILTON’S PARADISE LOST, B. IV.
3. Nimble; active. Applied to the tongue.
A friend promised to dissect a woman’s tongue, and examine whether there may not be in it certain juices, which render it so wonderfully voluble and flippant. ADDISON.
These with a voluble and flippant tongue, become mere echo’s. WATTS’S IMPROVEMENT OF THE MIND.
4. Fluent of words. It is applied to the speech, or the speaker.
Cassio, a knave very voluble; no further conscionable, than in putting on the meer form of civil and humane seeming, for the better compassing of his loose affection. SHAKESPEARE.
If voluble and sharp discourse be marr’d,
Unkindness blunts it more than marble hard. SHAKESPEARE.
VO’LUME. n.s. [volumen, Lat.]
1. Something rolled, or convolved.
2. As much as seems convolved at once; as a fold of a serpent, a wave of water.
Threescore and ten I can remember well;
Within the volume of which time I’ve seen
Hours dreadful, and things strange. SHAKESPEARE’S MACBETH.
Unoppos’d they either lose their force,
Or wind in volumes to their former course. DRYDEN.
Behind the gen’ral mends his weary pace,
And silently to his revenge he sails:
So glides some trodden serpent on the grass,
And long behind his wounded volume
trails. DRYDEN.
Thames’ fruitful tides,
Slow through the vale in silver volumes play. FENTON.
By the insinuations of these crystals, the volumes of air are driven out of the watery particles, and many of them uniting, form larger volumes, which thereby have a greater force to expand themselves. CHEYNE.
3. [Volume, Fr.] A book; so called, because books were antiently rolled upon a staff.
Guyon all this while his book did read,
Ne yet has ended; for it was a great
And ample volume, that doth far exceed
My leisure, so long leaves here to repeat. FAIRY QUEEN.
Calmly, I do beseech you. ——
Aye, as an hostler, that for the poorest piece
Will bear the knave by th’ volume. SHAKESPEARE.
I shall not now enlarge on the wrong judgments whereby men mislead themselves. This would make a volume. LOCKE.
If one short volume cou’d comprize
All that was witty, learn’d and wise:
How wou’d it be esteem’d and read? SWIFT.
To VOLUNTEE’R. v.n. To go for a soldier. A cant word.
Leave off these wagers, for in conscience speaking,
The city needs not your new tricks for breaking:
And if you gallants lose, to all appearing, You’ll want an equipage for volunteering. DRYDEN.
VO’WEL. n.s. [voyelle, Fr. vocalis, Lat.] A letter which can be uttered by itself.
I distinguish letters into vowels and consonants, yet not wholly upon their reason, that a vowel may be sounded alone, a consonant not without a vowel; which will not be found all true; for many of the consonants may be sounded alone, and some joined together without a vowel, as bl. st. and as we pronounce the latter syllable of people, riffle. HOLDER.
Virgil makes the two vowels meet without an elision. BROOME.
VOWFE’LLOW. n.s. [vow and fellow.] One bound by the same vow.
Who are the votaries, That are vowfellows with this virtuous king? SHAKESPEARE.
UPHO’LDER. n.s. [from uphold.]
1. A supporter.
Suppose then Atlas ne’er so wise:
Yet when the weight of kingdom lies
Too long upon his single shoulders,
Sink down he must, or find upholders. SWIFT.
2. A sustainer in being.
The knowledge thereof is so many manuductions to the knowledge and admiration of the infinite wisdom of the creator and upholder of them. HALE.
3. An undertaker; one who provides for funerals.
The company of upholders have a right upon the bodies of the subjects. ARBUTHNOT.
Where the brass knocker wrapt in flannel band,
Forbids the thunder of the footman’s hand;
Th’ upholder, rueful harbinger of death, Waits with impatience for the dying breath. GAY.
UPHO’LSTERER. n.s. [A corruption of upholder.] One who furnishes houses; one who fits up apartments with beds and furniture.
If a corner of the hanging wants a single nail, send for the upholsterer. SWIFT.
Mere wax as yet, you fashion him with ease, Your barber, cook, upholsterer. POPE.
UPLA’NDISH. adj. [from upland.] Mountainous; inhabiting mountains.
Lion-like, uplandish, and mere wild,
Slave to his pride; and all his nerves being naturally compil’d
Of eminent strength; stalks out and preys upon a silly sheep. CHAPMAN’S ILIADS.
U’PPISH. adj. [from up.] Proud; arrogant. A low word.
U’RINAL. n.s. [urinal, Fr. from urine.] A bottle, in which water is kept for inspection.
These follies shine through you, like the water in an urinal. SHAKESPEARE’S TWO GENTLEMEN OF VERONA.
A candle out of a musket will pierce through an inch board, or an urinal force a nail though a plank. BROWN.
This hand, when glory calls, Can brandish arms, as well as urinals. GARTH.
Some with scymitars in their hands, and others with urinals, ran to and fro. SPECTATOR, NO 159.
URINA’TOR. n.s. [urinateur, Fr. urinator, Lat.] A diver; one who searches under water.
The precious things that grow there, as pearl, may be much more easily fetched up by the help of this, than by any other way of the urinators. WILKINS’S MATHEMATICAL MAGICK.
Those relations of urinators belong only to those places where they have dived, which are always rocky. RAY.
U’SHER. n.s. [huissier, Fr.]
1. One whose business is to introduce strangers, or walk before a person of high rank.
The wife of Antony
Should have an army for an usher, and
The neighs of horse to tell her approach
Long ere she did appear. SHAKESPEARE’S ANTONY AND CLEOPATRA.
You make guards and ushers march before, and then enters your prince. TATLER, NO 53.
Gay paid his courtship with the croud,
As far as modest pride allow’d;
Rejects a servile usher’s place,
And leaves St. James’s in disgrace. SWIFT.
2. An under-teacher; one who introduces young scholars to higher learning.
Though grammar profits less than rhetorick’s,
Yet ev’n in those his usher claims a share. DRYDEN.
USQUEBA’UGH. n.s. [An Irish and Erse word, which signifies the water of life.] It is a compounded distilled spirit, being drawn on aromaticks; and the Irish sort is particularly distinguished for its pleasant and mild flavour. The Highland sort is somewhat hotter; and, by corruption, in Scottish they call it whisky.
USTO’RIOUS. adj. [ustum, Latin.] Having the quality of burning.
The power of a burning glass is by an ustorious quality in the mirror or glass, arising from a certain unknown substantial form. WATTS.
VU’LGAR. n.s. [vulgaire, Fr.] The common people.
I’ll about;
Drive away the vulgar from the streets. SHAKESPEARE.
Those men, and their adherents, were then looked upon by the affrighted vulgar, as greater protectors of their laws and liberties than myself. KING CHARLES.
The vulgar imagine the pretender to have been a child imposed upon the nation by the fraudulent zeal of his parents, and their bigotted counsellors. SWIFT.