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De - Pt| English Dictionary: venal | by the DICT Development Group |
| 3 results for venal | |
| From WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006) [wn]: | |
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| From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
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Venal \Ve"nal\, a. [L. vena a vein.] Of or pertaining to veins; venous; as, venal blood. [R.] | |
| From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) [web1913]: | |
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Venal \Ve"nal\, a. [L. venalis, from venus sale; akin to Gr. [?] price, Skr. vasna: cf. F. v[82]nal.] Capable of being bought or obtained for money or other valuable consideration; made matter of trade or barter; held for sale; salable; mercenary; purchasable; hireling; as, venal services. [bd] Paid court to venal beauties.[b8] --Macaulay. The venal cry and prepared vote of a passive senate. --Burke. Syn: Mercenary; hireling; vendible. Usage: {Venal}, {Mercenary}. One is mercenary who is either actually a hireling (as, mercenary soldiers, a mercenary judge, etc.), or is governed by a sordid love of gain; hence, we speak of mercenary motives, a mercenary marriage, etc. Venal goes further, and supposes either an actual purchase, or a readiness to be purchased, which places a person or thing wholly in the power of the purchaser; as, a venal press. Brissot played ingeniously on the latter word in his celebrated saying, [bd] My pen is venal that it may not be mercenary,[b8] meaning that he wrote books, and sold them to the publishers, in order to avoid the necessity of being the hireling of any political party. Thus needy wits a vile revenue made, And verse became a mercenary trade. --Dryden. This verse be thine, my friend, nor thou refuse This, from no venal or ungrateful muse. --Pope. | |
