| verge | 1. A rod or staff, carried as an emblem of authority; as, the verge, carried before a dean. 2. The stick or wand with which persons were formerly admitted tenants, they holding it in the hand, and swearing fealty to the lord. Such tenants were called tenants by the verge. 3. The compass of the court of Marshalsea and the Palace court, within which the lord steward and the marshal of the king's household had special jurisdiction; so called from the verge, or staff, which the marshal bore. 4. A virgate; a yardland. 5. A border, limit, or boundary of a space; an edge, margin, or brink of something definite in extent. "Even though we go to the extreme verge of possibility to invent a supposition favorable to it, the theory . . . Implies an absurdity." (J. S. Mill) "But on the horizon's verge descried, Hangs, touched with light, one snowy sail." (M. Arnold) 6. A circumference; a circle; a ring. "The inclusive verge Of golden metal that must round my brow." (Shak) 7. The shaft of a column, or a small ornamental shaft. The edge of the tiling projecting over the gable of a roof. 8. The spindle of a watch balance, especially one with pallets, as in the old vertical escapement. See Escapement. 9. <botany> The edge or outside of a bed or border. A slip of grass adjoining gravel walks, and dividing them from the borders in a parterre. 10. The penis. 11. <zoology> The external male organ of certain mollusks, worms, etc. Synonym: Border, edge, rim, brim, margin, brink. Origin: F. Verge, L. Virga; perhaps akin to E. Wisp. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
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| vergeboard | The ornament of woodwork upon the gable of a house, used extensively in the 15th century. It was generally suspended from the edge of the projecting roof (see Verge, 4), and in position parallel to the gable wall. Synonym: bargeboard. Origin: Verge + board. Cf. Bargeboard. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| vergence | A disjunctive movement of the eyes in which the fixation axes are not parallel, as in convergence or divergence. Origin: L. Vergo, to incline, to turn (05 Mar 2000) |
| vergence of lens | The reciprocal of the principal focal distance used as a measure of the divergence or convergence of parallel rays. (05 Mar 2000) |
| vergency | 1. The act of verging or approaching; tendency; approach. 2. <optics> The reciprocal of the focal distance of a lens, used as measure of the divergence or convergence of a pencil of rays. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| vergeture | Synonym: striae cutis distensae. Origin: Fr. Wheal, mark of a lash, fr. L. Virga, rod, switch (05 Mar 2000) |
| Verheyen's stars | The star-shaped groups of venules in the renal cortex. Synonym: stellate veins, stellate venules, stellulae verheyenii, venae stellatae, Verheyen's stars. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Verheyen, Philippe | <person> Flemish anatomist, 1648-1710. See: Verheyen's stars, stellulae verheyenii. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Verhoeff's elastic tissue stain | <technique> A stain for tissue sections in which a mixture of haematoxylin, ferric chloride, and Lugol's iodine solution is used; tissue may be counterstained, if desired, with eosin or van Gieson's stain; elastic fibres and nuclei appear blue-black to black while collagen and other components are shades of pink to red. (05 Mar 2000) |
| Verhoeff, Frederick | <person> U.S. Ophthalmologist, 1874-1968. See: Verhoeff's elastic tissue stain. (05 Mar 2000) |
| verine | <chemistry> An alkaloid obtained as a yellow amorphous substance by the decomposition of veratrine. Origin: Contr. From veratrine. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| verjuice | 1. The sour juice of crab apples, of green or unripe grapes, apples, etc.; also, an acid liquor made from such juice. 2. Tartness; sourness, as of disposition. Origin: OE. Vergeous, F. Verjus, that is, the juice of green fruits; verd, vert, green + jus juice. See Verdant, and Juice. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| vermeology | <study, zoology> A discourse or treatise on worms; that part of zoology which treats of worms; helminthology. Origin: L. Vermes worms. (04 Mar 1998) |
| vermes | <zoology> An extensive artificial division of the animal kingdom, including the parasitic worms, or helminths, together with the nemerteans, annelids, and allied groups. By some writers the branchiopods, the bryzoans, and the tunicates are also included. The name was used in a still wider sense by Linnaeus and his followers. A more restricted group, comprising only the helminths and closely allied orders. Origin: L. Vermes, pl. Of vermis a worm. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |
| vermetid | <zoology> Any species of vermetus. Source: Websters Dictionary (01 Mar 1998) |