Virtue
['vɜːtjuː;-tʃuː] or ['vɝtʃʊ]
Definition
(noun.) the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong.
(noun.) a particular moral excellence.
(noun.) morality with respect to sexual relations.
Typed by Dido--From WordNet
Definition
(n.) Manly strength or courage; bravery; daring; spirit; valor.
(n.) Active quality or power; capacity or power adequate to the production of a given effect; energy; strength; potency; efficacy; as, the virtue of a medicine.
(n.) Energy or influence operating without contact of the material or sensible substance.
(n.) Excellence; value; merit; meritoriousness; worth.
(n.) Specifically, moral excellence; integrity of character; purity of soul; performance of duty.
(n.) A particular moral excellence; as, the virtue of temperance, of charity, etc.
(n.) Specifically: Chastity; purity; especially, the chastity of women; virginity.
(n.) One of the orders of the celestial hierarchy.
Typist: Marcus
Synonyms and Synonymous
n. [1]. Force, efficacy, power, strength, potency.[2]. Goodness (that comes from self discipline), uprightness, probity, integrity, rectitude, morality, worth, moral excellence.
Checked by Janice
Synonyms and Antonyms
SYN:Power, capacity, strength, force, efficacy, excellence, value, morality,goodness, uprightness, purity, chastity, salubrity
ANT:Weakness, incapacity, inability, inefficacy, badness, corruption, vice,immorality, impurity, unchastity, virulence, malignancy
Typist: Waldo
Definition
n. excellence: worth: moral excellence: the practice of duty: a moral excellence: sexual purity esp. female chastity: purity: (B.) strength: force: inherent power efficacy: one of the orders of the celestial hierarchy.—adj. Vir′tual having virtue or efficacy: having the efficacy without the material part: in effect though not in fact: (mech.) possible and infinitesimal.—adv. Vir′tually.—adjs. Vir′tueless wanting virtue: without efficacy; Vir′tue-proof (Milt.) impregnable in virtue; Vir′tuous having virtue or moral goodness: blameless: righteous: practising duty: being according to the moral law: chaste (of a woman).—adv. Vir′tuously.—n. Vir′tuousness.—By In virtue of through the power force or efficacy of; Make a virtue of necessity to do as if from inclination or sense of duty something one must needs do; Seven principal Virtues faith hope charity justice prudence temperance and fortitude—the first three the theological the last four the moral virtues; The cardinal virtues (see Cardinal).
Checked by Cordelia
Unserious Contents or Definition
n.pl. Certain abstentions.
Inputed by Kurt
Unserious Contents or Definition
A quality oftentimes associated with intelligence, but rarely with beauty.
Edited by Estelle
Examples
- And still the unjust must appear just; that is 'the homage which vice pays to virtue. Plato. The Republic.
- I suppose the virtue to belong to my companion, not to myself; and observe what follows from this alteration. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- His eyes want all that spirit, that fire, which at once announce virtue and intelligence. Jane Austen. Sense and Sensibility.
- Virtue is free, and as a man honours or dishonours her he will have more or less of her; the responsibility is with the chooser--God is justified. Plato. The Republic.
- You looked surprised to-day when you heard him tell me that I had made a virtue of necessity in marrying him. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Happy people, who enjoy so many living examples of ancient virtue, and have masters ready to instruct them in the wisdom of all former ages! Jonathan Swift. Gulliver's Travels into Several Remote Nations of the World.
- This is most complimentary to the virtue of Prince Bladud's tears, and strongly corroborative of the veracity of this legend. Charles Dickens. The Pickwick Papers.
- The same truth may be proved still more evidently by that reasoning, which proved justice in general to be an artificial virtue. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- These things and deeds are diametrically opposed: they are as distinct as is vice from virtue. Charlotte Bronte. Jane Eyre.
- At least it must be owned, that heroic virtue, being as unusual, is as little natural as the most brutal barbarity. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- But Horsfall has this virtue, added the surgeon--drunk or sober, she always remembers to obey _me_. Charlotte Bronte. Shirley.
- She did not at all resemble either a paragon or a prude; and yet I am the only one of all our family who am not afraid of her wit or her virtue. Harriette Wilson. The Memoirs of Harriette Wilson.
- They are better authorities than I am, for they know what virtue is, and I don't. Wilkie Collins. The Woman in White.
- Prudence was never a cardinal virtue of the Kentucky boy. Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- But Fate intervened enviously and prevented her from receiving the reward due to such immaculate love and virtue. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- But this, in my opinion, is not a sufficient reason for excluding them from the catalogue of virtues. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- We need no other explication of that esteem, which attends such of the natural virtues, as have a tendency to the public good. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- He thinks I am perfect: furnished with all sorts of sterling qualities and solid virtues, such as I never had, nor intend to have. Charlotte Bronte. Villette.
- They had generally acquired some of the vices of civilization, but none of the virtues, except in individual cases. Ulysses S. Grant. Personal Memoirs of U. S. Grant.
- This is not the case with the natural virtues. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- Two virtues remain; temperance and justice. Plato. The Republic.
- Whatever happened, he knew, she would always be loyal, gallant and unresentful; and that pledged him to the practice of the same virtues. Edith Wharton. The Age of Innocence.
- To call them virtues in their isolation is like taking the skeleton for the living body. John Dewey. Democracy and Education.
- Perhaps it will appear afterwards, that our sense of some virtues is artificial, and that of others natural. David Hume. A Treatise of Human Nature.
- I shall be too busy for whist; I shall have two parishes, said the Vicar, preferring not to discuss the virtues of that game. George Eliot. Middlemarch.
- With all these virtues, one penny a square! Charles Dickens. Oliver Twist.
- An eloquent catalogue appeared in a weekly print, describing his virtues, his magnificence, his talents, and his good actions. William Makepeace Thackeray. Vanity Fair.
- The man never trod ground whose virtues and services would have sustained him in that place that day, against such denunciation. Charles Dickens. A Tale of Two Cities.
- All the moral and Christian virtues bound in black Morocco, complete! Harriet Beecher Stowe. Uncle Tom's Cabin.
- And is not a similar method to be pursued about the virtues, which are also four in number? Plato. The Republic.
Typed by Claire