[ves-uh
l] 
| 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. |
| ves·sel (věs'əl) n.
[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin vāscellum, diminutive of Latin vāsculum, diminutive of vās, vessel.] |
vessel ves·sel (věs'əl)
n.
A duct, canal, or other tube that contains or conveys a body fluid such as blood or lymph.
vessel (věs'əl) Pronunciation Key
|
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.
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