catflap.org Online Dictionary Query

  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. ``The very virtue of
        compassion.'' --Shak. ``Remember all his virtues.''
        --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. ``He used to travel through Greece by virtue
        of this fable, which procured him reception in all the
        towns.'' --Addison. ``This they shall attain, partly in
        virtue of the promise made by God, and partly in virtue of
        piety.'' --Atterbury.
  
     Theological virtues, the three virtues, faith, hope, and
        charity. See --1 Cor. xiii. 13.

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