vaporole 
amount of a volatile drag, covered with a thin 
layer of cotton-wool and inclosed in a silk bag: 
used for vaporization, the glass being crushed 
in the fingers. 
vaporose (va'por-6s), a. [< LL. rajiorosus, full 
of vapor: see vaporous."] Vaporous. 
vaporosity (va-po-ros'i-ti), n. [< vaporose + 
-iti/.l The state or character of being vaporose 
or vaporous ; vaporousness ; blustering. 
He is here, with'his fixed-idea and volcanic vaporosity. 
Carlyle, Diamond Necklace, v. 
vaporous (va'por-us), (i. [Formerly also va- 
j>roits; = F. va'porci/x = Sp. Pg. It. vaporoso, < 
LL. vaporosus, full of steam or vapor, < L. ra- 
por, steam, vapor: seerry>&r.] 1. In the form 
or having the nature of vapor. 
The statements in Genesis respecting the expanse sup- 
pose a previous condition of the earth in which it was 
encompassed with a cloudy, vaporous mantle, stretching 
continuously upward from the ocean. 
Damson, Nature and the Bible, p. 52. 
2. Full of vapors or exhalations. 
The vav&roits night approaches. 
Shak., M. for M., iv. 1. 58. 
Over the waters in the vaporous West 
The sun goes down as in a sphere of gold. 
Browning, Paracelsus. 
3. Promotive of exhalation or the flow of ef- 
fluvia, vapor, gases, or the like ; hence, windy ; 
flatulent. 
If the mother eat much beans, ... or such vaporous 
food, . . it endangereth the child to become lunatic. 
Bacon, Nat. Hist., 977. 
4. Unsubstantial ; vainly imaginative ; whim- 
sical ; extravagant ; soaring. 
Let him but read the fables of Ixion, and it will hold him 
from being vaporous or imaginative. 
Bacon, Advancement of Learning, i. 
A boy-dreamer [Shelley], . . . whose chief thoughts and 
hopes were centred in a vaporous millennium of equality 
and freedom. E. Dowden, Shelley, I. 245. 
vaporously (va'por-us-li), adv. 1. In a vapor- 
ous manner; with vapors. 2. Boastiugly; os- 
tentatiously. 
Talking largely and vaporously of old-time experiences 
on the river. 
S. L. Clemens, Life on the Mississippi, p. 495. 
vaporousness (ya'por-us-nes), n. The state or 
character of being vaporous ; mistiness. 
The warmth and vaporousness of the air. 
T. Birch, Hist. Roy. Soc., III. 416. 
vappr-pan (va'por-pan), n. A pan for evapo- 
rating water. 
A vapor-pan is placed at each side of the fire-box for 
moistening the air. Jour. Franklin Inst., CXXII. 398. 
vapor-plane (va'por-plan), . In meteor., the 
level of condensation; the altitude at which 
an ascending current of moist air is cooled 
to the dew-point and begins to condense. In 
summer the base of cumulus clouds shows the 
level of the vapor-plane. 
vaporspout (va'por-spout), . A waterspout. 
[Rare.] 
If it were necessary to change the name, which, as in 
many other things, was given before the thing was under- 
stood, it would be more appropriate to call them vapor- 
spouts, since they are evidently composed of condensed 
vapor. Ferrel, Treatise on the Winds, p. 419. 
vapor-tension (va'por-ten"shou), n. Vapor- 
pressure ; the elastic pressure of vapor, espe- 
cially that of the aqueous vapor in the atmo- 
sphere : usually measured, like the pressure of 
the atmosphere, in inches of mercury. 
The author has most wisely abandoned the use of that 
most misleading of terms, vapour-tension, and substitutes 
therefor simply pressure. Nature, XXX. 51. 
vapory, vapoury (va'por-i), a. [< vapor + 
-y 1 .] 1. Vaporous; producing vapors; com- 
posed of or characterized by vapors: as, a va- 
pory redness in the sky. 
The waxen taper which I burn by night, 
With the dull vap'ry dimness, mocks my sight. 
Drayton, Rosamond to Hen. II. 
Yet one smile more, departing, distant sun ! 
One mellow smile through the soft vapory air. 
Bryant, November. 
2. Affected with the vapors ; hypochondriacal ; 
splenetic ; peevish : as, vapory humors. 
vapour, vapoured, etc. See vapor, etc. 
vapulation (vap-u-la'shon), . [< L. vapulare, 
be flogged or whipped, + -ation.] The act of 
beating or whipping ; a flogging. [Rare.] 
The coaches were numbered, although I can only find 
one notice of it : "So that, rather than to stand a Vapula- 
tion, one of them took Notice of his Number ; " and the 
coachmen were noted for their incivility. 
Ashton, Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, II. 171. 
vapulatory (vap'u-la-to-ri), a. [< vapulate + 
-ory.~\ Of or pertaining to vapulatiou. [Rare.] 
6698 
I am not, of course, arguing in favor of a return to those 
vapulatory methods ; but the birch, like many other things 
that have passed out of the region of the practical, may 
have another term of usefulness as a symbol after it has 
ceased to be a reality. Lowell, Harvard Anniversary. 
vaqueria (vak-e-re'a), . [Sp., < vaquero, a cow- 
herd: see vaquero, and 
cf. vaccary, vachery."] A 
farm for grazing cattle ; a 
stock-farm. 
vaquero (va-ka'ro), n. 
[Sp., = F. vaclier, a cow- 
herd : see vacher.'] A 
herdsman. 
The American cowboys of a 
certain range, after a brisk 
fight, drove out the Mexican 
vaqueros from among them. 
T. Roosei>elt, The Century, 
[XXXVI. 836. 
var. An abbreviation (.) 
of variety (frequent in 
botany and zoology) ; (o) 
of variant (so used in this 
work). 
vara (va'ra), n. [< Chilian 
vara, a measure of length, 
lit. 'a pole,' < Sp. Pg. va- 
ra, rod, pole, cross-beam, 
yardstick: see wire 1 .] A 
Spanish-American linear 
measure. In Texas the vara is regarded as equal to 
33.^ English inches ; in California, by common consent, it 
is taken to be exactly 33 English inches. In Mexico it is 
32.9927 inches. 
Choice water-lots at Long Wharf [San Francisco], and 
fifty-earn building sites on Montgomery Street. 
J. W. Palmer, The New and the Old, p. 201. 
varan (var'an), n. [Also wan, ouran, uaran; 
= F. varan (Algerian ouran) (NL. Varamis), < 
Ar. waran, warel (Devic), warn, warl (Newman), 
a lizard.] A varanoid lizard ; a monitor. 
Varangian (va-ran'ji-an), n. [< ML. *Varan- 
t/us, Varingus' (E. Waring), MGr. 
A Vaquero. 
variability 
for spreading nets, also a forked stick, < VIITHX. 
bent, crooked: see varns."] A wand or staff of 
authority. 
His hand a vare of justice did uphold ; 
His neck was loaded with a chain of gold. 
Dryden, Abs. and Achit., i. 595. 
vare 2 (var), i. [Prob. a form of rair.'] A weasel. 
varec (var'ek), . [< F. varech, OF. wereeq, 
werech = Pr. varec (ML. warescum, wreclcum), in 
one view < Icel. vagrek. lit. 'wave rack,' goods 
or objects thrown up by the sea, < vdgr, a wave, 
+ rek, drift, motion (see waw^ and rack 3 ) ; but 
prob. < AS. wrsee, ME. wrak = D. wrak, etc., 
wreck, wrack: see wreck, wracl;.~] An impure 
sodium carbonate made in Brittany : it corre- 
sponds to the English I'elp. Brands and Cox. 
vare-headed (var'hed"ed), . Having a head 
like that of a weasel; weasel-headed: as, the 
vare-headed, widgeon, the pochard, Fuligulafe- 
rina. See under weasel-coot. [Local, British.] 
vareuse (va-rez'), . [F.] A kind of loose 
jacket. 
Cottonade pantaloons, stuffed into a pair of dirty boots, 
and a vareuse of the same stuff, made up his dress. His 
vareuse, unbuttoned, showed his breast brown and hairy. 
G. W. Cable, Stories of Louisiana, Francoise, i. 
vare-widgeon (var'wij // on), . The weasel- 
duck; the female or young male of the smew, 
Mergellus albellns. Monta/jn. [North Devon, 
Eng.] 
vargueno (var-ga'no), n. [Named from the 
village of Vargas, near Toledo in Spain.] A 
cabinet of peculiar form, consisting of a box- 
shaped body without architectural ornaments, 
opening by means of a front hinged at the bot- 
tom edge, and the whole mounted on columns 
Icel. Vseringi, a Varangian, lit. 'a confederate,' 
< varar, pi. of *var, oath,_troth, plight, = AS. 
icier, covenant, oath, < u'xr, true, = L. verus, 
true: see warlock^, very.] One of the Norse 
warriors who ravaged the coasts of the Baltic 
about the ninth century, and who (according 
to common account) overran part of Russia 
and formed an important element in the early 
Russian people Varangian Guard, a body-guard 
of the Byzantine emperorsabout the eleventh century, 
formed upon a nucleus of Varangians. 
varanian (va-ra'ni-an), a. and n. [< Varamis 
+ -WTO.] I. a. Belonging or related to the Va- 
runidte; resembling a varan. 
II. n. One of the monitor-lizards. 
Varanidae (va-ran'i-de), n. pi. [NL., < Va- 
ranus + -idse.~\ A family of eriglossate lacer- 
tilians, representing alone the superfamily Va- 
ranoidea, having confluent nasal bones, and 
the tongue insheathed at the base and deeply 
bifid anteriorly. The species inhabit Africa (except- 
ing Madagascar), the Oriental region, and Australia. Also 
called Monitoridee. See cuts under Hydrosaurus and 
acrodont. 
varanoid (var'a-noid), a. and x. I. a. Resem- 
bling a varan or monitor; of or pertaining to 
the Vuranoiden. 
II. n. A varan or monitor. 
Varanoidae (var-a-no'i-de), n. pi. A super- 
family of lizards, in which the monitors, living 
and extinct, and the extinct mosasaurians, are 
together contrasted with the heloderms (as He- 
lodermatoidea), both being assigned to the old 
group Platynota. 
Varanoidea (var-a-noi'de-a), n. pi. [NL. 
(Gill. 1885), < Varantts + -oiaea."] A super- 
family of eriglossate lacertilians, the monitors 
or varanoids, represented by the single living 
family Varanidx. See cuts under Hydrosaurus 
and acrodont. 
Varanus (var'a-nus), n. [NL. (Merrem), < Ar. 
waran, lizard:'see varan."] The typical genus 
of Varanidx: synonymous with Monitor. Some 
of the fossil monitors re'ached a length of 30 feet, as V. 
(ilegalmca) priscus from the Pleistocene of Queensland. 
See cut under acrodont. 
vardet (var'det), n. An obsolete or dialectal 
form of verdict. Halliwell. [Prov. Eug.] 
Vardingalet (var'ding-gal), n. An old spelling 
of farthingale. 
Or, if they [stiff pickadils] would not bend, whipping 
your rebellious vardini/ales with my [Cupid's] bow string, 
and made them run up into your waists (they have lain so 
flat) for fear of my indignation. 
B. Jonson, Challenge at Tilt. 
Spanish Vargueno, I7th century. (From " L'Art pour Tous.") 
or a stand at a height convenient for writing 
on the opened cover used as a desk. The decora- 
tion is of geometrical character, and makes especial use of 
thin ironwork in pierced patterns, sometimes gilded and 
mounted on pieces of red cloth, leather, or the like, which 
form a background. 
vari 1 (var'i), n. [= F. vari (Buffon), the ring- 
tailed lemur; prob. from a native name.] The 
macaco, or ruffed lemur, Lemur varius. 
vari 2 , . Plural of varus. 
variability (va"ri-a-bil'i-ti), w. [= F. varia- 
Irilite = Pg. variabilidade = It. tariaoiUta ; as 
variable + -ity."] 1. The quality or state of 
being variable ; variableness. 
A very few nebulse have been suspected of variability, 
but in almost every instance the supposed change has 
been traced to errors of observation, impurity of the at- 
mosphere, or other causes. 
Appleton's Ann. Cyc., 1886, p. 5. 
2. In l)iol., ability to vary; capability of varia- 
tion ; susceptibility to modification under condi- 
tions of environment, whether inherited or ac- 
quired ; that plasticity or modifiability of any 
organism in virtue of which an animal or a plant 
may change in form, structure, function, size, 
color, or other character, lose some character or 
acquire another, and thus deviate from its pa- 
rent-form ; also, the kind or rate of variation in 
a given instance; the fact or act of varying. See 
variation, 8, variety, 6. Variability or mutability of 
some kind and to some extent is inherent in all organisms, 
and is transmissible like any other natural attribute or 
(var), n. [< Sp. Pg. vara, a rod, pole, 
yardstick, < L. van/, wooden horse or trestle 
form, and which causes it to retain that form instead of 
acquiring a different form) ; yet variability has somewhat 
explicit reference to the tendency of organisms to become 
unlike their parents under external influences, and so to 
adapt themselves to their surroundings. Hence variabil- 
