virtue : Dictionary / Wörterbuch (BEOLINGUS, TU Chemnitz)

English Dictionary: virtue	by the DICT Development Group
2 results for virtue
From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]:
virtue n the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong Synonym(s): virtue, virtuousness, moral excellence any admirable quality or attribute; "work of great merit" Synonym(s): merit, virtue Antonym(s): demerit, fault morality with respect to sexual relations Synonym(s): virtue, chastity, sexual morality a particular moral excellence
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]:
Virtue \Vir"tue\ (?; 135), n. [OE. vertu, F. vertu, L. virtus strength, courage, excellence, virtue, fr. vir a man. See {Virile}, and cf. {Virtu}.] 1. Manly strength or courage; bravery; daring; spirit; valor. [Obs.] --Shak. Built too strong For force or virtue ever to expugn. --Chapman. 2. 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. Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about. --Mark v. 30. A man was driven to depend for his security against misunderstanding, upon the pure virtue of his syntax. --De Quincey. The virtue of his midnight agony. --Keble. 3. Energy or influence operating without contact of the material or sensible substance. She moves the body which she doth possess, Yet no part toucheth, but by virtue's touch. --Sir. J. Davies. 4. Excellence; value; merit; meritoriousness; worth. I made virtue of necessity. --Chaucer. In the Greek poets, . . . the economy of poems is better observed than in Terence, who thought the sole grace and virtue of their fable the sticking in of sentences. --B. Jonson. 5. Specifically, moral excellence; integrity of character; purity of soul; performance of duty. Virtue only makes our bliss below. --Pope. If there's Power above us, And that there is all nature cries aloud Through all her works, he must delight in virtue. --Addison. 6. A particular moral excellence; as, the virtue of temperance, of charity, etc. [bd]The very virtue of compassion.[b8] --Shak. [bd]Remember all his virtues.[b8] --Addison. 7. Specifically: Chastity; purity; especially, the chastity of women; virginity. H. I believe the girl has virtue. M. And if she has, I should be the last man in the world to attempt to corrupt it. --Goldsmith. 8. pl. One of the orders of the celestial hierarchy. Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers. --Milton. {Cardinal virtues}. See under {Cardinal}, a. {In}, [or] {By}, {virtue of}, through the force of; by authority of. [bd]He used to travel through Greece by virtue of this fable, which procured him reception in all the towns.[b8] --Addison. [bd]This they shall attain, partly in virtue of the promise made by God, and partly in virtue of piety.[b8] --Atterbury. {Theological virtues}, the three virtues, faith, hope, and charity. See --1 Cor. xiii. 13.