VAN 
Thy pride. 
And wandering vanity , when least was safe, 
Rejected my forewarning. Milton. 
Trifling labour.—To use long discourse against those things 
which are both against Scripture and reason, might rightly 
be judged a vanity'vci the answerer, not much inferior to that 
of the inventor. Ralegh. —Falsehood; untruth.—Here I may 
well shew the vanity of that which is reported in the story 
of Walsingham. Davies. —Empty pleasure; vain pursuit; 
idle shew; unsubstantial enjoyment; petty object of pride. 
I must 
Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple 
Some vanity of mine art. Shakspeare. 
Ostentation; arrogance.—The ground-work thereof is 
true, however they, through vanity, whilst they would not 
seem to be ignorant, do thereupon build many forged his¬ 
tories of their own antiquity. Spenser. —Petty pride ; pride 
exerted upon slight grounds; pride operating on small oc¬ 
casions. 
Can you add guilt to vanity, and take 
A pride to hear the conquests which you make. Dryclen. 
VAN-MANDER, a painter and author, was born at 
Meulebeke, near Courtray, in 1548. Van-Mander united 
with the talent of a painter that of a poet, and composed 
tragedies and comedies, several of which were acted with 
success, with decorations painted by himself; and we are 
indebted to him for a very useful history of the painters of 
antiquity and of his own country. He died at Amsterdam, 
in 1606: 
VANNACHOIR, or Vennochar, a lake of Scotland, 
in Perthshire, about four miles long, and in general about 
one broad. 
VANNES,a considerable town in the north-west of France, 
in Brittany, the see of a bishop, and the chief place of 
the department of the Morbihan. It is advantageously 
situated at the bottom of a bay, interspersed with islets, 
about two miles and a half from the sea; 60 miles south¬ 
west of Rennes, and 70 west-by-north of Nantes. Lat. 47. 
39. 29. N. long. 2. 45. W. 
VANNES, Isles of, several small islands on the west 
coast of France, in Gascony, between Belle-isle and the 
mouth of the Loire. 
VANNI (Francesco, Cavaliere), was the son of a painter 
of little celebrity at Vienna, who died whilst he was very 
young, and was born in 1563. He went to Rome when 
he was about sixteen, aud entered the school of Giovanni 
de Vecchi, and became an imitator of Baroccio. His best 
performances are at Sienna, as his Marriage of St. Catharine, 
in the church of II Refugio ; and S. Raimondo walking 
on the Sea, in the Dominicans; which is considered the 
finest work in the city. He died at Sienna, in 1610. 
Ta VA'NQUISH, v. a. [vaincre, Fr.] To conquer; 
to overcome; to subdue. 
Wer’t not a shame, that, whilst you live at jar, 
The fearful French, whom you late vanquished. 
Should make a start o’er seas, and vanquish you ? 
Sha/cspeare. 
To confute.—This bold assertion has been fully van¬ 
quished in a late reply to the bishop of Meaux’s treatise. At- 
terbury, 
VA'NQUISHABLE, adj. Conquerable; that may be 
overcome.—That great giant was ©aly vanquishable by the 
knights of the Wells. Gayton. 
VA'NQUISHER, s. Conqueror; subduer. 
He would pawn his fortunes 
To hopeless restitution, so he might 
Be call’d your vanquisher. Shakspeare . 
VANS, a small town in the south of France, department 
of the Ardeche; 14 miles south-by-west of Argentiere, and 
33 south-west of Privas. 
VANSVILLE, a post township of the United States, 
in Prince George county, Maryland. Lat. 39. 2. N. long 76. 
o5. W, 
V A P 231 
VA'NTAGE, s. Gain ; profit.—What great vantage do 
we get by the trade of a pastor ? Sidney. —Superiority ; 
state in which one had better means of action than another. 
With the vantage of mine own excuse, 
Hath he excepted most against my love. Shakspeare. 
Opportunity; convenience. 
Be assur’d, Madam, ’twill be done, 
With his next vantage. Shakspeare. 
To VA'NTAGE, v. a. To profit. Not in use. 
We yet of present peril be afraid; 
For needless fear did never vantage none. Spenser. 
.VANTAGE-GROUND, s. Superiority ; state in which 
one has better means of action than another.— Let him 
expect a battle, and know that he is to combat a prepared 
enemy, who has prevented him, and comes to fight him 
upon the vantage-ground. South. 
VA'NTBRACE, or Va'ntbrass, s. [ avant bras, Fr.] 
Armour for the arm. 
I’ll hide my silver beard in a gold beaver. 
And in my vantbrace put this wither’d brawn. Shakspeare. 
VANTCHIN, a city of China, of the second rank, in 
Quangsee. Lat. 23. 1. N. long. 106. 51. E. 
VANTIEN, a city of China, of the second rank, in Yunan. 
Lat. 24. 29. N. long. 109. 14. E. 
VA'PID, adj. [yapidus, Lat.] Dead; having the spiiit 
evaporated; spiritless; mawkish; flat. 
Thy wines let feed a-while 
On the fat refuse; lest too soon disjoined, 
From spritely it to sharp or vapid change. Philips 
VA'PIDNESS, s. The stale of being spiritless or mawk¬ 
ish; mawkishness. 
To VA'PORATE, v. n. To emit vapours. Cockeram. 
VA'PORATION, 5. [vaporatio, Lat ] The act of escap¬ 
ing in vapours.—By conflagration and congelation, accord¬ 
ing to certain respects; by vaporation and evaporation; 
by sublimation. Biblioth. 
VA'PORER, s. A boaster; a braggart.—This shews 
these vaporers, to what scorn they expose themselves. Go¬ 
vernment o f the Tongue. 
VA'PORINGLY, adv. In a bullying or bragging man¬ 
ner. 
VA'PORISH, adj. Vaporous; full of vapours.—It pro¬ 
ceeded from the nature of the vapourish place. Sandys. — 
Splenetic; peevish; humoursome. 
Pallas grew vap'rish once and odd. 
She would not do the least right thing. Pope. 
VA'POROUS, adj. Full of vapours or exhalations; 
fumy.—The vaporous night approaches. Shakspeare. — 
Windy; flatulent.—If the mother eat much beans, or such 
vaporous food, it endangerelh the child to become lunatic. 
Bacon. 
VA'POROUSNESS, s. State or quality of being vapor¬ 
ous.— The warmth and vaporousness of the air. Hist. 
R. S. 
VA'PORY, adj. Vaporous; abounding with vapours. 
Congregated clouds. 
And all the vapory turbulence of heaven, 
Involve the face of things. Thomson. 
Peevish; humoursome. 
Their only labour was to kill the time; 
And labour dire it is, and weary woe! 
They sit, they loll, turn o’er some idle rhyme; 
Then rising sudden, to the glass they go, 
Or saunter forth with tottering step and slow; 
This soon too rude an exercise they find: 
Strait on the couch again their limbs they throw, 
Where hours on hours they sighing lie reclin’d, 
And court the vapoury god soft-breathing in the wind. 
Thomson. 
VA'POUR, s. [vapor, Lat.] Any thing exhalable; any 
thing that mingles with the vbx.—Vapour, and mist, and 
exhalation 
