vigil


Also found in: Thesaurus, Medical, Acronyms, Encyclopedia, Wikipedia.
Related to vigil: Vigil Mass, Easter Vigil

vig·il

 (vĭj′əl)
n.
1.
a. A watch kept during normal sleeping hours.
b. The act or a period of observing; surveillance.
2. The eve of a religious festival observed by staying awake as a devotional exercise.
3. often vigils Ritual devotions observed on the eve of a holy day.
4. A public assembly convened, often at night, as a political protest or in support of a cause.

[Middle English vigile, a devotional watching, from Old French, from Latin vigilia, wakefulness, watch, from vigil, awake; see weg- in Indo-European roots.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

vigil

(ˈvɪdʒɪl)
n
1. a purposeful watch maintained, esp at night, to guard, observe, pray, etc
2. the period of such a watch
3. (Ecclesiastical Terms) RC Church Church of England the eve of certain major festivals, formerly observed as a night spent in prayer: often marked by fasting and abstinence and a special Mass and divine office
4. (Pathology) a period of sleeplessness; insomnia
[C13: from Old French vigile, from Medieval Latin vigilia watch preceding a religious festival, from Latin: vigilance, from vigil alert, from vigēre to be lively]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

vig•il

(ˈvɪdʒ əl)

n.
1. wakefulness maintained for any reason during the normal hours for sleeping.
2. a period of watchful attention.
3.
a. Sometimes, vigils. a nocturnal devotional exercise or service, esp. on the eve of a church festival.
b. the eve or day and night before a church festival, esp. an eve that is a fast.
[1200–50; Middle English vigil(i)e < Medieval Latin vigilia eve of a holy day, Latin: watchfulness =vigil sentry + -ia -y3]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.vigil - a period of sleeplessness
wakefulness - a periodic state during which you are conscious and aware of the world; "consciousness during wakefulness in a sane person is pretty well ordered and familiar"
2.vigil - the rite of staying awake for devotional purposes (especially on the eve of a religious festival)vigil - the rite of staying awake for devotional purposes (especially on the eve of a religious festival)
religious rite, rite - an established ceremony prescribed by a religion; "the rite of baptism"
viewing, wake - a vigil held over a corpse the night before burial; "there's no weeping at an Irish wake"
agrypnia - a vigil before certain feasts (as e.g. Easter)
faith, religion, religious belief - a strong belief in a supernatural power or powers that control human destiny; "he lost his faith but not his morality"
3.vigil - a purposeful surveillance to guard or observevigil - a purposeful surveillance to guard or observe
surveillance - close observation of a person or group (usually by the police)
continuous receiver watch, listening watch - a watch established for the reception of traffic of interest to the unit maintaining the watch
spying - keeping a secret or furtive watch
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.

vigil

noun
The act of carefully watching:
Idiom: watch and ward.
The American Heritage® Roget's Thesaurus. Copyright © 2013, 2014 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
Translations
aatto
bdijenjebdjenje

vigil

[ˈvɪdʒɪl] Nvigilia f, vela f
to keep vigil (over sth/sb)velar (algo/a algn)
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

vigil

[ˈvɪdʒɪl] nveille f
to hold a vigil → manifester en silence
to keep vigil → veiller
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

vigil

n
(Nacht)wache f; to keep vigil over somebodybei jdm wachen; the dog kept vigil over his injured masterder Hund hielt bei seinem verletzten Herrn Wache; her long vigils at his bedsideihr langes Wachen an seinem Krankenbett
(Rel) → Vigil f, → Nachtwache f
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

vigil

[ˈvɪdʒɪl] nveglia
to keep vigil → vegliare
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

vig·il

n. vigilia.
1. estado de respuesta consciente a un estímulo;
2. insomnio.
English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012
References in classic literature ?
My gardian angel is asleep At leest he doth no vigil keep
Here, where the mimic eagle glared in gold, A midnight vigil holds the swarthy bat!
They were to meet at Holcomb's house at eight o'clock in the evening of the appointed day and go together to the scene of their vigil, where certain arrangements for their comfort, a provision of fuel and the like, for the season was winter, had been already made.
``Something more potent than that,'' answered the Jester; ``for when would repentance or prayer make Gurth do a courtesy, or fasting or vigil persuade him to lend you a mule?
On another night, his vigil was rewarded by a glimpse of Ruth through a second-story window.
That endless vigil kept, And through each brain on hands of pain
Anne read hers that bitter night, as she kept her agonized vigil through the hours of storm and darkness.
Charley and I, after our customary night vigil by the side of the Lancashire Queen, rowed into the Solana Wharf.
Then, as my vigil wore on, came a faintness in the eastward sky, like the reflection of some colourless fire, and the old moon rose, thin and peaked and white.
In spite of all that has happened since, I still remember that vigil very distinctly: the black and silent observatory, the shadowed lantern throwing a feeble glow upon the floor in the corner, the steady ticking of the clockwork of the tele- scope, the little slit in the roof--an oblong profundity with the stardust streaked across it.
"This temporary sepulture is," he said, "that of a man who was of feeble mind, yet one whose reign was full of great events; because over this king watched the spirit of another man, even as this lamp keeps vigil over this coffin and illumines it.
Upon this score he was so jealous of austerity and reserve, that when the Dame de Beaujeu, the king's daughter, came to visit the cloister of Notre-Dame, in the month of December, 1481, he gravely opposed her entrance, reminding the bishop of the statute of the Black Book, dating from the vigil of Saint-Barthélemy,