Vigil /(?)/
Vig·il
Vigil
n.
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Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch.
Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card table and those cutting passions which attend them.
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Hence, devotional watching; waking for prayer, or other religious exercises.
So they in heaven their odes and vigils tuned.
Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate.
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Originally, the watch kept on the night before a feast. (Eccl.)
He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, And say, “To-morrow is St. Crispian.”
- A religious service performed in the evening preceding a feast.
Phrases & Compounds
- Vigils of flowers
- a peculiar faculty belonging to the flowers of certain plants of opening and closing their petals at certain hours of the day.