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vestal
WORDNET DICTIONARY
Noun vestal has 1 sense
- vestal(n = noun.person) Array - a chaste woman; Array is a kind of adult female, woman
Derived form adjective vestal2
Adjective vestal has 2 senses
- vestal(a = adj.pert) Array - of or relating to Vesta; "vestal virgin" Derived form noun vesta2
- vestal(s = adj.all) pure, virgin, virginal, virtuous - in a state of sexual virginity; "pure and vestal modesty"; "a spinster or virgin lady"; "men have decreed that their women must be pure and virginal" Derived form noun vestal1
CIDE DICTIONARY
vestal, a. [L. Vestalis belonging to Vesta, vestal. See Vesta.].
Of or pertaining to Vesta, the virgin goddess of the hearth; hence, pure; chaste. [1913 Webster]
- A virgin consecrated to Vesta, and to the service of watching the sacred fire, which was to be perpetually kept burning upon her altar. [1913 Webster]" The Vestals were originally four, but afterward six, in number. Their term of service lasted thirty years, the period of admission being from the sixth to the tenth year of the candidate's age." [1913 Webster]
- A virgin; a woman pure and chaste; also, a nun. [1913 Webster]"How happy is the blameless vestal's lot!" [1913 Webster]
OXFORD DICTIONARY
vestal, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 chaste, pure.
2 of or relating to the Roman goddess Vesta.
--n.
1 a chaste woman, esp. a nun.
2 Rom. Antiq. a vestal virgin.
--adj.
1 chaste, pure.
2 of or relating to the Roman goddess Vesta.
--n.
1 a chaste woman, esp. a nun.
2 Rom. Antiq. a vestal virgin.
Idiom
vestal virgin Rom. Antiq. a virgin consecrated to Vesta and vowed to chastity, who shared the charge of maintaining the sacred fire burning on the goddess's altar.
Etymology
ME f. L vestalis (adj. & n.) (as VESTA)
THESAURUS
vestal
Platonic, abstinent, bachelor girl, celibate, continent, feme sole, intact, lone woman, maid, maiden, maiden lady, maidenly, old maid, single girl, spinster, spinstress, vestal virgin, virgin, virginalROGET THESAURUS
vestal
Purity
N purity, decency, decorum, delicacy, continence, chastity, honesty, virtue, modesty, shame, pudicity, pucelage, virginity, vestal, virgin, Joseph, Hippolytus, Lucretia, Diana, prude, pure, undefiled, modest, delicate, decent, decorous, virginibus puerisque, simon-pure, chaste, continent, virtuous, honest, Platonic, virgin, unsullied, cherry, as chaste as unsunn'd snow, a soul as white as heaven, 'tis Chastity, my brother, Chastity, to the pure all things are pure.
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