Vigil word meaning and definition

[noun] a purposeful surveillance to guard or observe
[noun] a devotional watch (especially on the eve of a religious festival)
[noun] a period of sleeplessness

\Vig"il\, n. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake, watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See {Wake}, v. i., and cf. {Reveille}, {Surveillance}, {Vedette}, {Vegetable}, {Vigor}.] 1. Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. ``Worn out by the labors and vigils of many months.'' --Macaulay. Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card table and those cutting passions which attend them. --Addison. 2. Hence, devotional watching; waking for prayer, or other religious exercises. So they in heaven their odes and vigils tuned. --Milton. Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate. --Neale (Rhythm of St. Bernard). 3. (Eccl.)
(a) Originally, the watch kept on the night before a feast.
(b) Later, the day and the night preceding a feast. He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, And say, ``To-morrow is St. Crispian.'' --Shak.
(c) A religious service performed in the evening preceding a feast. {Vigils, or Watchings}, {of flowers} (Bot.), a peculiar faculty belonging to the flowers of certain plants of opening and closing their petals as certain hours of the day. [R.]

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