vessel 
Specifically, in metal., the converter in which Bessemer 
steel is made. See steel*. 
As far as my observation goes, metallurgical writers al- 
most invariably use the word converter, while in the steel 
works the word vessel is almost always used. 
H. M. Howe, Metal, of Steel, p. 339. 
2. A ship; a craft of any Had: usually a larger 
craft than a boat, but in law often construed to 
mean any floating structure. 
Let 's to the seaside, ho ! 
As well to see the vessel that 's come in 
As to throw out our eyes for brave Othello. 
Shale., Othello, ii. 1. 37. 
He sent it with a small vessel 
That there was quickly Kami to sea. 
John Thomson and the Turk (Child's Ballads, III. 853). 
3. In anut. and zoiiL, any duct or canal in 
which a fluid, as blood or lymph, is secreted, 
contained, or conveyed, as an artery, vein, 
capillary, lymphatic, or spermatic ; especially, 
a blood-vessel. A part or organ pervaded or 
well provided with vessels is said to be vascular. 
4. In bot., same as duct that is, a row of 
cells which have lost their intervening parti- 
tions, and consequently form a long continuous 
canal. The walls of the vessel or duct may be variously 
marked by pits, or by spiral, annular, or reticulated thick- 
enings. 
5. Figuratively, something conceived as formed 
to receive or contain ; hence, especially in Scrip- 
tural phraseology, a person into whom any- 
thing is conceived as poured or infused, or to 
whom something has been imparted ; a recipi- 
ent. 
He is a chosen vessel unto me, to hear my name before 
the Gentiles, and kings, and the children of Israel. 
Acts ix. 15. 
What if God, willing to shew his wrath, and to make 
his power known, endured with much long-suffering the 
vessels of wrath fitted to destruction ? Rom. ix. 22. 
6f. Vessels collectively; plate. 
The vessel of the temple he with him ladde. 
Chaucer, Monk's Tale, 1. 158. 
'Goth, bringeth forth the vessealx," quod he. 
Chaucer, Monk's Tale, 1. 204. 
Of gold ther is a borde, <fc tretela ther bi, 
Of sillier other vesselle gilte fulle richeli. 
Hob. of Brunne, p. 152. 
Acoustic, ambulacra!, annular, ascending, blind, 
capillary, cardiac, coronary, dorsal, gluteal, inter- 
costal vessel. See the adjectives. Lacteal vessels, 
lymphatics which absorb chyle from the intestinal canal. 
See lacteal, n. Laticiferous, lymphatic, Malpighian, 
merchant vessel. See the adjectives. Milk vessel. 
See milk-vessel. Obliterated vessel. See obliterate. 
Scalariform, spiral, umbilical, etc., vessel. See the 
adjectives. Squeezed-in vessel. See squeeze. The 
weaker vessel, a phrase applied, now often jocularly, to 
a woman, in allusion to 1 Pet. iii. 7 : "Giving honour unto 
the wife as unto the weaker vessel." 
I must comfort the weaker vessel, as doublet and hose 
ought to show itself courageous to petticoat. 
Shak., As you Like it, ii. 4. . 
VCSSelt (ves'el), v. t. [< ME. resselen ; < vessel, 
.] To put into a vessel. 
Aloes tweyne unces epatike ; 
Let vessel it, and set it uppe in smyke. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 200. 
Take that earth and . . . vessel it, and in that . . . set 
the seed. Bacon, Nat. Hist., 529. 
vesselful (ves'el-ful), n. [< vessel + -fill.] As 
much as a vessel will hold, 
vesselingt, . [ME. vesselUnge; < vessel + -in;/ 1 .] 
Vessels collectively. 
Whenne thai beth colde in pitched vesscllinge 
And cleyed close hem up. 
Palladius, Husbondrie (E. E. T. S.), p. 118. 
vesselmentt, n. [< ME. vessel-merit, vesselement, 
< OF. vaissellement, vessels, plate, furniture, < 
vaisselle, vessels, plate : see vessel.'] Plate ; fur- 
niture. Hall/well. 
Curteynes or outlier vestyment, 
Or any outher vesselement. 
MS. Hart. 1701, f. 62. 
Deuised he the vesselment, the vestures clene, 
Wyth sly3t of his ciences, his souerayn to loue. 
Alliterative Poems (ed. Morris), ii. 1288. 
vesses (ves'ez), [Also vessets; prob. con- 
nected with ME. fasel, a fringe, AS./s, thread, 
fiber.] A sort of worsted. HalUwell. 
vessignon (ves'i-nyon), n. [< F. vessianon, a 
wind-gall (on a horse), < L. vesica, a bladder, 
a blister : see vesica.'] A kind of soft swelling 
on a horse's leg; a wind-gall. 
vest (vest), n. [< F. veste, a vest, jacket, = Sp. 
Pg. veste = It. veste, vesta, < L. vestis, a garment, 
gown, robe, vestment, clothing, vesture, = 
Goth, wasti, clothes; cf. (Jr. eoOf/f, dress, cloth- 
ing; < ifves = Gr. hv'wai (V Fee), clothe, = Skt. 
J vas, put on (clothes), = Goth, wasjan = AS. 
toerian, put on (clothes), wear: see wear 1 . From 
the L. vestis are also tilt. E. vest, v., vestment, 
vestni, vesture, divest, invest, travesty, etc.] 1. 
H740 
An article of clothing covering the person : an 
outer garment; a vestment. [Archaic.] 
Over his lucid arms 
A military vest of purple flow'd. 
Hilton, P. L., xi. 241. 
The rivets of the vest 
Which girds in steel his ample breast. 
Whittier, Mogg Megone, iii. 
2. Figuratively, garment; dress; array; ves- 
ture. 
Xot seldom, clad itt radiant vest, 
Deceitfully goes forth the morn. 
Wordsworth, Near the Spring of the Hermitage. 
Wherever he be flown, whatever vest 
The being hath put on which lately here 
So many-friended was. Lowell, Agassiz, vi. 2. 
3. A body-garment for men's wear, at different 
times of distinct types, (a) Originally, a garment 
like a cassock, said by Pepys to have been adopted by 
( 'harles II. as the fashion for his court, and ridiculed by 
Louis XIV. of France, who put his servants into such vests. 
You are not to learn, 
At these Years, how absolutely necessary a rich Vest 
And a Perruque are to a Man that aims at their [ladies'] 
Favours. Ktherege, She Would if she Could, iii. 3. 
The vest is gathered up before them [figures on medals) 
like an apron, which you must suppose filled with fruits 
as well as the cornu-copia;. Addison, Ancient Medals, ii. 
Under his doublet Charles appeared in a vest, "being n 
long cassock," as Pepys explains, ''close to the body, of 
Mack cloth and pinked with white silk under it." 
Encyc. Brit., VI. 473. 
(6) A body-garment of later times; especially, the waist- 
coat in the ordinary modern sense that is, a short gar- 
ment without sleeves, buttoning down the front, and hav- 
ing the back concealed by the coat. 
Numerous pegs with coats and t pants"and "vests" as 
he was in the habit of calling waistcoats and pantaloons or 
trousers hanging up as if the owner had melted out of 
them. 0. W. Holmes, Professor, vii. 
If tailors would only print upon waistcoats, I would 
give double price for a vest, bearing this inscription. 
R. D. Blacktnore, Lorna Doone, Ixvi. 
4. An outer garment, or part of such a garment, 
for women. Especially (a) A sort of jacket with or 
without sleeves, and known by many different names ac- 
cording to changing fashion : as, Breton vest, Oriental vest, 
etc. (b) A trimming or facing of the front of the bodice, 
sometimes with a different material, and following more 
or less closely the form of a man's vest : a fashion often 
reappearing. Over the vest of this form a coat is gener- 
ally worn. 
5. An undergarment knitted or woven on the 
stocking-loom. Vest and tindervest are more 
common in England; undershirt in the United 
States. 
vest (vest), *. [< OF. restir, F. vetir = Sp. Pg. 
vestir = It. vestire, < L. vestire, clothe, dress, < 
vestis, a garment, clothing: see vest, n. Cf. 
wear 1 , '.] I. trans. 1. To clothe with or as 
with a garment, vest, or vestment; robe; dress; 
cover, surround, or encompass closely. 
Vested all in white, pure as her mind. 
Milton, Sonnets, xviii. 
2. To invest or clothe, as with authority ; put 
in possession (of); endow; put more or less 
formally in occupation (of): followed by with. 
To settle men's consciences, 'tis necessary that they 
know the person who by right is vested with power over 
them. Locate. 
Had I been vested icith the Monarch's Pow'r, 
Thou must have sigh'd, unlucky Youth, in vain. 
Prior, To Mr. Howard. 
3. To place or put in possession or at the dis- 
posal of ; give or confer formally or legally an 
immediate fixed right of present or future pos- 
session, occupancy, or enjoyment of ; commit 
to: followed by in. 
So, instead of getting licenses in mortmain to enable 
him to vest his lands in the Gild of the Holy Cross, he 
made a deed of feoffment, vesting them in persons therein 
named. English Gilds (E. E. T. S.), p. 252. 
I will not trust executive power, vested in the hands of 
a single magistrate, to keep the vigils of liberty. 
D. Webster, Speech, Senate, May 7, 1834. 
4. To lay out, as money or capital ; invest: as, 
to vest money in land. [Rare.] Imp. Diet. 
II. intraus. 1. To put on clothing or vest- 
ments. 
Even in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries it was 
the common custom for priests, at least in England, to 
vest in the sanctuary. Cath. Diet., p. 838. 
2. To come or descend; devolve; take effect, 
as a title or right : with in. 
The supreme power could not be said to vest in them ex- 
clusively. Brougham. 
It is already the usage to speak of a trust as a thing that 
vests, and as a thing that may be divested. 
Bentham, Introd. to Morals and Legislation, xvi. 27, note. 
To vest in interest, to pass or devolve as matter of right 
or title irrespective of any immediate right of possession. 
To vest in possession, to pass in possession or imme- 
diate right of possession. See vented. 
Vesta (ves'ta), n. [L., = Gr. 'Eo-rz, the god- 
dess of the hearth, y' vns, Skt. -\/ 7i, burn : 
The Giustiniani Statue of Vesta 
(Hestia). Torlonia Museum, 
Rome. 
vested 
see nation, .liirnrn, Knstcr.] 1. One of the chief 
divinities of the ancient Romans, equivalent 
to the Greek Hestia, 
one of the twelve great 
Olympians, the virgin 
goddess of the hearth, 
presiding over both the 
private family altar and 
the central altar of the 
city, the tribe, or the 
race. She was worshiped 
along with the Penates at 
every meal, when the family 
assembled round the altar or 
hearth, which was in the cen- 
ter of the house. ^Eneas was 
said to have carried the sa- 
cred flre(whichwas her sym- 
bol) from Troy, and brought 
it to Italy, and it was pre- 
served at Rome by the state 
in the sanctuary of the god- 
dess, which stood in the Fo- 
rum. To guard this fire from 
becoming extinguished, it 
was watched and tended by 
six stainless virgins, called 
eestals. The Roman temples 
of Vesta were circular, pre- 
serving the form of the prim- 
itive huts of the Latin race, 
because it was in such a hut 
that the sacred fire was first 
tended by the young girls 
while their parents and bro- 
thers were absent in the 
chase or pasture-ground. See 
also cuts under hut-urn and 
monopteron. 
2. The fourth planetoid, discovered by Olbers. 
at Bremen, in 1807. 3. [I. c.] A wax match 
which may be ignited by friction. 
The door of a small closet here attracted the young 
man's attention ; and, striking a vesta, he opened it and 
entered. R. L. Stevenson, The Dynamiter, p. 178. 
vestal (ves'tal), a. and n. [= F. vestale, n., = 
Sp. Pg. vestal = It. vestale, < L. Vestalis, of Vesta, 
as a noun (sc. virgo) a vestal virgin, < Vesta, 
Vesta: see Festa.] I. a. 1. Of or pertaining to 
Vesta, the classical goddess of the sacred fire 
and of the household and the state. 
When thou shouldst come, 
Then my cot with light should shine 
Purer than the vestal fire. 
Drayton, Shepherd's Sirena. 
2. Pertaining to or characteristic of a vestal 
virgin or a nun. 
Vestal modesty. Shale., R. and J., iii. 3. 38. 
My vestal habit me contenting more 
Than all the robes adorning me before. 
Drayton, Matilda to King John. 
II. ii. 1. Among the ancient Romans, a vir- 
gin consecrated to Vesta and to the service of 
watching the sacred fire, which was kept per- 
petually burning upon her altar. The vestals were 
at first four in number, afterward six. They entered the 
service of the goddess at from six to ten years of age, 
their term of service lasting thirty years. They were then 
permitted to retire and to marry, hut few did so, for, as 
vestals, they were treated with great honor, and had im- 
portant public privileges. Their persons were inviola- 
ble, any offense against them being punished with death, 
and they were treated in all their relations with the high- 
est distinction and reverence. A vestal who broke her 
vow of chastity was immured alive in an underground 
vault amid public mourning. There were very few such 
instances ; in one of them, under Domitian, the chief of 
the vestals was put to death under a false charge trumped 
up by the emperor. 
Hence 2. A virgin; a woman of spotless 
chastity; sometimes, a virgin who devotes her 
life entirely to the service of religion ; a nun : 
a religieuse. 
Shall 's go hear the vestals sing? 
Shak., Pericles, iv. 5. 7. 
She would a dedicated vestal prove, 
And give her virgin vows to heaven and love. 
Crabte, Works, VII. 94. 
3. In entom. : (a) The geometrid moth Sterrlni- 
sacraria : popularly so called in England. (6) 
A gossamer-winged butterfly ; any member of 
the Vestales. 
Vestalest (ves-ta'lez), n. pi. [NL. : see vestal.'] 
A group of butterflies ; the vestals, virgins, or 
gossamer-winged butterflies. 
vestamentt, Same as vestment. 
His vestamentt sit as if they grew upon him. 
Massi tiger, Fatal Dowry, iv. 1. 
vested (ves'ted),^). r. 1. Clothed; especially, 
wearing, or having assumed, state robes or some 
ceremonial costume : as, a vested choir. 
A troop of yellow -vested white-haired Jews, 
Bound for their own land, where redemption dawns. 
Browning, Paracelsus, iv. 
2. In her., clothed; draped: used especially 
when the clothing is of a different tincture from 
the rest of the bearing. This blazon is more 
