Vesta
['vestə]
Definition
(noun.) the brightest asteroid but the fourth to be discovered.
(noun.) (Roman mythology) goddess of the hearth and its fire whose flame was tended by vestal virgins; counterpart of Greek Hestia.
Checker: Sylvia--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) One of the great divinities of the ancient Romans, identical with the Greek Hestia. She was a virgin, and the goddess of the hearth; hence, also, of the fire on it, and the family round it.
(n.) An asteroid, or minor planet, discovered by Olbers in 1807.
(n.) A wax friction match.
Editor: Pratt
Definition
n. among the Romans the chaste goddess that presided over the family in whose temple the sacred fire was continually kept burning: the fourth planetoid discovered in 1807: a match or waxlight:—pl. Ves′tas.—adj. Ves′tal pertaining to or consecrated to the service of Vesta: chaste: pure.—n. in the ancient Roman religion one of the six patrician virgins consecrated to Vesta: a virgin a nun a woman of spotless chastity.
Typed by Alphonse
Examples
- The latest improvement in chemical matches is the Vesta, which consists of small wax, or stearine tapers, with an igniting composition at the end, consisting of chlorate of potass and phosphorus. Frederick C. Bakewell. Great Facts.
- It was a wax vesta half burned, which was so coated with mud that it looked at first like a little chip of wood. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes.
- The Temple of Vesta might have sprung up anew from its ruins, expressly to lend its countenance to the occasion. Charles Dickens. Little Dorrit.
- He is a professional beggar, though in order to avoid the police regulations he pretends to a small trade in wax vestas. Arthur Conan Doyle. The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes.
Checker: Wayne