Vigil
name, noun, verb ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 An instance of keeping awake during normal sleeping hours, especially to keep watch or pray.
"I saw her head drooped upon her hand; her whole attitude expressing that profound depression, whose lonely vigil wastes the midnight in a gloomy watch, which yet hopes for nothing at its close."
- 2 a purposeful surveillance to guard or observe wordnet
- 3 A period of observation or surveillance at any hour.
"His dog kept vigil outside the hospital for eight days while he was recovering from an accident."
- 4 the rite of staying awake for devotional purposes (especially on the eve of a religious festival) wordnet
- 5 The eve of a religious festival in which staying awake is part of the ritual devotions.
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- 6 a period of sleeplessness wordnet
- 7 A quiet demonstration in support of a cause.
"The protesters kept vigil outside the conference centre in which the party congress was being held."
- 1 To participate in a vigil.
"As the arrested painters and their supporters waited out their "day in court," other activists distributed Hiroshima information leaflets, vigiled silently with placards and banners, and marched 500-strong through downtown Boston to a rally at City Hall Plaza."
- 1 A surname.
Example
More examples"She kept an all-night vigil over her sick child."
Etymology
From Middle English vigile (“a devotional watching”), from Old French vigile, from Latin vigilia (“wakefulness, watch”), from vigil (“awake”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be strong, lively, awake”). Doublet of Wigilia. See also wake and vigor, from the same root.