| vicarious | 1. Of or pertaining to a vicar, substitute, or deputy; deputed; delegated; as, vicarious power or authority. 2. Acting of suffering for another; as, a vicarious agent or officer. "The soul in the body is but a subordinate efficient, and vicarious . . . In the hands of the Almighty." (Sir M. Hale) 3. Performed of suffered in the place of another; substituted; as, a vicarious sacrifice; vicarious punishment. "The vicarious work of the Great Deliverer." (I. Taylor) 4. <medicine> Acting as a substitute; said of abnormal action which replaces a suppressed normal function; as, vicarious hemorrhage replacing menstruation. Origin: L. Vicarius, from vicis change, alternation, turn, the position, place, or office of one person as assumed by another; akin to Gr. To yield, give way, G. Wechsel a change, and probably also to E. Weak. See Weak, and cf. Vice. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| vicarious hypertrophy | Hypertrophy of an organ following failure of another organ because of a functional relationship between them; e.g., enlargement of the pituitary gland, after destruction of the thyroid. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Vicat needle | <equipment> A device for obtaining the setting time of plaster and other materials. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Vicat, L | <person> French engineer, 1786-1861. See: Vicat needle. (05 Mar 2000) |
| vice | 1. A defect; a fault; an error; a blemish; an imperfection; as, the vices of a political constitution; the vices of a horse. "Withouten vice of syllable or letter." (Chaucer) "Mark the vice of the procedure." (Sir W. Hamilton) 2. A moral fault or failing; especially, immoral conduct or habit, as in the indulgence of degrading appetites; customary deviation in a single respect, or in general, from a right standard, implying a defect of natural character, or the result of training and habits; a harmful custom; immorality; depravity; wickedness; as, a life of vice; the vice of intemperance. "I do confess the vices of my blood." (Shak) "Ungoverned appetite . . . A brutish vice." (Milton) "When vice prevails, and impious men bear sway, The post of honor is a private station." (Addison) 3. The buffoon of the old English moralities, or moral dramas, having the name sometimes of one vice, sometimes of another, or of Vice itself; called also Iniquity. This character was grotesquely dressed in a cap with ass's ears, and was armed with a dagger of lath: one of his chief employments was to make sport with the Devil, leaping on his back, and belaboring him with the dagger of lath till he made him roar. The Devil, however, always carried him off in the end. "How like you the Vice in the play? . . . I would not give a rush for a Vice that has not a wooden dagger to snap at everybody." (B. Jonson) Synonym: Crime, sin, iniquity, fault. See Crime. Origin: F, from L. Vitium. Denoting one who in certain cases may assume the office or duties of a superior; designating an officer or an office that is second in rank or authority; as, vice president; vice agent; vice consul, etc. Vice admiral. [Cf. F. Vice-amiral] An officer holding rank next below an admiral. By the existing laws, the rank of admiral and vice admiral in the United States Navy will cease at the death of the present incumbents. A civil officer, in Great Britain, appointed by the lords commissioners of the admiralty for exercising admiralty jurisdiction within their respective districts. Vice admiralty, the office of a vice admiral. Vice-admiralty court, a court with admiralty jurisdiction, established by authority of Parliament in British possessions beyond the seas. Vice chamberlain, an officer in court next in rank to the lord chamberlain. Vice chancellor. The cardinal at the head of the Roman Chancery. Vice consul [cf. F. Vice-consul], a subordinate officer, authorised to exercise consular functions in some particular part of a district controlled by a consul. Vice king, one who acts in the place of a king; a viceroy. Vice legate [cf. F. Vice-legat], a legate second in rank to, or acting in place of, another legate. Vice presidency, the office of vice president. Vice president [cf. F. Vice-president], an officer next in rank below a president. Origin: Cf. F. Vice-. See Vice. 1. <mechanics> A kind of instrument for holding work, as in filing. Same as Vise. 2. A tool for drawing lead into cames, or flat grooved rods, for casements. Alternative forms: vise. 3. A gripe or grasp. See: Vise. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| viceroy | 1. The governor of a country or province who rules in the name of the sovereign with regal authority, as the king's substitute; as, the viceroy of India. 2. <zoology> A large and handsome American butterfly (Basilarchia, or Limenitis, archippus). Its wings are orange-red, with black lines along the nervures and a row of white spots along the outer margins. The larvae feed on willow, poplar, and apple trees. Origin: F. Vice-roi; pref. Vice- in the place of (L. Vice) + roi a king, L. Rex. See Vice, and Royal. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| vichy water | A mineral water found at Vichy, France. It is essentially an effervescent solution of sodium, calcium, and magnetism carbonates, with sodium and potassium chlorides; also, by extension, any artificial or natural water resembling in composition the Vichy water proper. Called also, colloquially, Vichy. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| vicilin | <protein> Seed storage protein of legumes. Protein from Pisum sativum is a trimer of 50 kD subunits. High proportion of _ pleated sheet (40-50%) and only about 10% _ helix. (18 Nov 1997) |
| vicinal | <chemical> Vicinal planes, subordinate planes on a crystal, which are very near to the fundamental planes in angles, and sometimes take their place. They have in general very complex symbols. Origin: L. Vicinalis: cf. F. Vicinal. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| vicine | <chemistry> An alkaloid ex tracted from the seeds of the vetch (Vicia sativa) as a white crystalline substance. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| vicious cicatrix | A cicatrix that by its contraction causes a deformity. (05 Mar 2000) |
| vicious circle | The mutually accelerating action of two independent diseases or phenomena, or of a primary and secondary affection, the passage of food, after a gastroenterostomy, from the artificial opening through the intestinal loop by antiperistaltic action and back into the stomach again by the pyloric orifice, or the reverse. (05 Mar 2000) |
| vicious union | <orthopaedics> Union of the ends of a broken bone resulting in a deformity or a crooked limb; frequently used interchangeably with faulty union. Synonym: malunion. (05 Mar 2000) |
| vicissy duck | <zoology> A West Indian duck, sometimes domesticated. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| Vicq d'Azyr's bundle | A compact, thick bundle of nerve fibres that passes dorsalward from the mamillary body on either side to terminate in the anterior nucleus of the thalamus. Synonym: fasciculus mamillothalamicus, fasciculus thalamomamillaris, mamillothalamic tract, Vicq d'Azyr's bundle. (05 Mar 2000) |