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vessel - 9 dictionary results

ves⋅sel

  [ves-uhl]
Use vessel in a Sentence
–noun
1. a craft for traveling on water, now usually one larger than an ordinary rowboat; a ship or boat.
2. an airship.
3. a hollow or concave utensil, as a cup, bowl, pitcher, or vase, used for holding liquids or other contents.
4. Anatomy, Zoology. a tube or duct, as an artery or vein, containing or conveying blood or some other body fluid.
5. Botany. a duct formed in the xylem, composed of connected cells that have lost their intervening partitions, that conducts water and mineral nutrients. Compare tracheid.
6. a person regarded as a holder or receiver of something, esp. something nonmaterial: a vessel of grace; a vessel of wrath.
Origin:
1250–1300; ME < AF, OF vessel, va(i)ssel < L vāscellum, equiv. to vās (see vase ) + -cellum dim. suffix

Related forms:
vesseled; especially British, vesselled, adjective
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.
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ves·sel   (věs'əl)   
n.  
  1. A hollow utensil, such as a cup, vase, or pitcher, used as a container, especially for liquids.
    1. Nautical A craft, especially one larger than a rowboat, designed to navigate on water.
    2. An airship.
  3. Anatomy A duct, canal, or other tube that contains or conveys a body fluid: a blood vessel.
  4. Botany One of the tubular conductive structures of xylem, consisting of dead cylindrical cells that are attached end to end and connected by perforations. They are found in nearly all flowering plants.
  5. A person seen as the agent or embodiment, as of a quality: a vessel of mercy.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin vāscellum, diminutive of Latin vāsculum, diminutive of vās, vessel.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
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Vessel

Ves"sel\, n. [OF. vessel, veissel, vaissel, vaissiel, F. vascellum, dim. of vasculum, dim. of vas a vessel. Cf. Vascular, Vase.]

1. A hollow or concave utensil for holding anything; a hollow receptacle of any kind, as a hogshead, a barrel, a firkin, a bottle, a kettle, a cup, a bowl, etc.

[They drank] out of these noble vessels. --Chaucer.

2. A general name for any hollow structure made to float upon the water for purposes of navigation; especially, one that is larger than a common rowboat; as, a war vessel; a passenger vessel.

[He] began to build a vessel of huge bulk. --Milton.

3. Fig.: A person regarded as receiving or containing something; esp. (Script.), one into whom something is conceived as poured, or in whom something is stored for use; as, vessels of wrath or mercy.

He is a chosen vessel unto me. --Acts ix. 15.

[The serpent] fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in whom To enter. --Milton.

4. (Anat.) Any tube or canal in which the blood or other fluids are contained, secreted, or circulated, as the arteries, veins, lymphatics, etc.

5. (Bot.) A continuous tube formed from superposed large cylindrical or prismatic cells (trache[ae]), which have lost their intervening partitions, and are usually marked with dots, pits, rings, or spirals by internal deposition of secondary membranes; a duct.

Acoustic vessels. See under Acoustic.

Weaker vessel, a woman; -- now applied humorously. "Giving honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel." --1 Peter iii. 7. "You are the weaker vessel." --Shak.

Vessel

Ves"sel\, v. t. To put into a vessel. [Obs.] --Bacon.
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary, © 1996, 1998 MICRA, Inc.
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Language Translation for : vessel
Spanish: recipiente,
German: das Gefäß, *der Faß,
Japanese: 容器
More Translations »

vessel 
c.1303, "container," from O.Fr. vessel (Fr. vaisseau) from L. vascellum "small vase or urn," also "a ship," dim. of vasculum, itself a dim. of vas "vessel." Sense of "ship, boat" is found in Eng. c.1300. "The association between hollow utensils and boats appears in all languages" [Weekley]. Meaning "canal or duct of the body" (esp. for carrying blood) is attested from 1398.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2001 Douglas Harper
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Main Entry: ves·sel
Pronunciation: 'ves-&l
Function: noun
: a tube or canal (as an artery, vein, or lymphatic) in which a body fluid (as blood orlymph) is contained and conveyed or circulated
Merriam-Webster's Medical Dictionary, © 2002 Merriam-Webster, Inc.
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vessel ves·sel (věs'əl)
n.
A duct, canal, or other tube that contains or conveys a body fluid such as blood or lymph.

The American Heritage® Stedman's Medical Dictionary
Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company.
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vessel   (věs'əl)  Pronunciation Key 
  1. A blood vessel.
  2. A long, continuous column made of the lignified walls of dead vessel elements, along which water flows in the xylem of angiosperms.

The American Heritage® Science Dictionary
Copyright © 2002. Published by Houghton Mifflin. All rights reserved.
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vessel

in botany, the most specialized and efficient conducting structure of xylem (fluid-conducting tissues). Characteristic of most flowering plants and absent from most gymnosperms and ferns, vessels are thought to have evolved from tracheids (a primitive form of water-conducting cell) by loss of the end walls.

Learn more about vessel with a free trial on Britannica.com.

Encyclopedia Britannica, 2008. Encyclopedia Britannica Online.
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