| 释义 |
vital, a. and n.|ˈvaɪtəl|
Also 5 vytalle, 5–6 vytall, 5–7 vitall, 6 vitalle (vytail, Sc. wettal).
[a. OF. (also mod.F.) vital (14th c.; = Sp. and Pg. vital, It. vitale) or ad. L. vītāl-is f. vīta life. Cf. vitals.]
A. adj.
I.
1. a. Consisting in, constituted by, that immaterial force or principle which is present in living beings or organisms and by which they are animated and their functions maintained. Now chiefly Phys. or Biol.
c1386Chaucer Knt.'s T. 1944 In hise armes two The vital strengthe is lost, and al ago. 1426Lydg. De Guil. Pilgr. 24220 And thus my silf, I consume al The vertu that called is vital. 1597Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. liv. §9 For though it [i.e. Christ's body] had a beginning from us, yet God hath giuen it vitall efficacie. 1603Holland Plutarch's Mor. 1019 For that in each of us that which is mortall and subject to dissolution, containeth within it the power which is vitall. 1647H. More Song of Soul i. Pref. B viij b, He..shapes us from an inward vitall Principle..into a new life and shape. 1719De Foe Crusoe i. (Globe) 321 Men..spent their strength in daily Strugglings for Bread to maintain the vital Strength. 1784Cowper Task vi. 134 Where now the vital energy that mov'd,..the pure and subtile lymph Through th' imperceptible meand'ring veins Of leaf and flow'r? 1799Med. Jrnl. I. 372 Due attention ought always to be paid to the presence and activity of vital power in the animal body. 1843Sir C. Scudamore Med. Visit Gräfenberg 92 The higher importance and still greater influence of vital force and nervous energy, as compared with simple chemical action. 1887Bentley Man. Bot. (ed. 5) 24 This internal energy, which is peculiar to living protoplasm, is frequently spoken of as vital force.
b. vital spark († or vital flame). Cf. spark n.1 3.
(a)1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, Flamma Vitalis; some do suppose, that there resides in the Heart of Animals such a fine and kindled, but mild Substance, as they call a Vital Flame. 1744Berkeley Siris §156 The calidum innatum, the vital flame, or animal spirit in man.
(b)1712Pope Dying Christian to his Soul i, Vital spark of heav'nly flame! Quit, oh quit this mortal frame. 1826F. Reynolds Life & Times II. 341 For some moments it was supposed, that the vital spark was extinct. 1862Boyd Graver Th. Country Parson xv. 250 The multitudinous machinery of animal life is there, but the vital spark to set it in motion is wanting.
2. Maintaining, supporting, or sustaining life.
†a. vital spirit, vital spirits. Cf. spirit n. 16. Obs.
Freq. in the 16th c., chiefly in pl.
(a)c1450Mankind 805 in Macro Plays 30 He ys so tymerouse; me semyth hys vytall spryt doth expyre. 1477Norton Ord. Alch. v. in Ashm. (1652) 82 The Spirit Vitall in the Hert doth dwell. 1539Elyot Cast. Helthe (1541) 12 b, Spirit vitall procedeth from the harte, and by the arteries or pulses is sente into all the body. 1577tr. Bullinger's Decades (1592) 500 Paule calleth him the naturall man which liueth naturally by the vitall spirit. 1671Salmon Syn. Med. iii. iv. 334* The vital spirit resides in the heart, is dispersed by the arteries [etc.]. 1715Pope Iliad iii. 366 The vital spirit issued at the wound.
(b)1531Elyot Gov. i. xvi, Continual studye, without somme maner of exercise, shortely exhausteth the spirytes vytall. a1548Hall Chron., Hen. IV, 32 b, He lay as though all his vital spirites had bene from hym departed. 1606L. Bryskett Civ. Life 48 The heart, wherein all the vitall spirits are forged, and receiue their strength. 1626Bacon Sylva §30 As for liuing creatures it is certaine, their Vital Spiritts are a Substaunce Compounded of an Airy and Flamy Matter. 1667Milton P.L. v. 484. 1707 Floyer Physic. Pulse-Watch 134 The vital Spirits are the Animal, as they are commonly call'd; I call them vital, because they move the Heart and Respiration.
b. Of blood, heat, etc., or in general use.
vital fluid, in Bot., = latex 2.
1558W. Bullein Govt. Health A v, Apoplexia and Vertigo will neuer fro the[e] starte, Untill the vitall blode be killed in the harte. 1563B. Googe Eglogs, etc. (Arb.) 71 He..Gaue Onset fyrst vpon his Foes, and lost his vitall blud. 1598R. Barckley Felic. Man (1631) 707 The vitall moysture of his body [is] so consumed that he cannot be known to bee the same man. 1611Coryat Crudities 365 + 3 For whose sake..he ought not doubt to powre out his vitall bloud. 1667Milton P.L. vii. 236 The Spirit of God..vital vertue infus'd, and vital warmth throughout the fluid Mass. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. ii. 555 To unload the branches, or the leaves to thin, That suck the vital moisture of the vine. 1713Addison Cato iv. iii, The vital blood, that had forsook my heart, Returns again in such tumultuous tides. 1797Burke Regic. Peace iii. Wks. VIII. 409 Let us..watch the systole and diastole, as it now receives, and now pours forth the vital stream through all the members. 1837P. Keith Bot. Lex. 354 A fluid secreted from the crude sap which M. Schultz designates by the name of the latex or ‘vital fluid’. 1861F. Nightingale Nursing ii. (ed. 2) 13 A careful nurse will keep a constant watch over her sick..to guard against the loss of vital heat by the patient himself.
transf. and fig.1602Marston Antonio's Rev. iv. iv, She was my vitall blood.
c. Of breath or air. Chiefly poet.
Merging into sense 5.
(a)1565Cooper Thesaurus, s.v. Vitalis, Halitus vitalis, vitall breath. 1598Mucedorus i. iv. 27 Vnworthy I to beare this vitall breath! 1610Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 814 [He] dashed out his own braines, and at last yeelded up his vitall breath. 1697Dryden Virg. Georg. iv. 699 Longing the common Light again to share, And draw the vital breath of upper Air. 1717Prior Engraven on a Column 5 While yet We draw this vital Breath. 1738Wesley Psalms cxxxix. ii. ii, Should I suppress any vital Breath. 1817Wordsw. Vernal Ode 47 To every draught of vital breath, Renewed throughout the bounds of earth.
(b)1590Spenser F.Q. ii. vii. 66 All so soone as his enfeebled spright Gan sucke this vitall aire into his brest. 1697Dryden æneid xii. 876 Mad with her anguish,..she loaths the vital air. 1704Pope Pastorals, Spring 74 The sun's mild lustre warms the vital air. a1721Prior Colin's Mistakes vii, All that under sky breathe vital Air. 1821Shelley Adonais iii, Dream not that the amorous Deep Will yet restore him to the vital air. 1863Hawthorne Our Old Home (1879) 35 If the missing Doctor still breathed this vital air.
†d. vital air, in Old Chem., = oxygen 1.
1791W. Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing I. i. i. iii, I placed [it] in contact with vital air over mercury. 1793T. Beddoes Calculus, etc. 213 Venous blood exposed to vital air acquires the vermilion colour of arterial blood. 1806Med. Jrnl. XV. 582 Dr. Thornton has laid before the public some cases, which show the efficacy of vital air, or, as it is usually called, oxygen gas, in the cure of fits. 1837P. Keith Bot. Lex. 135 It appears that oxygen gas,..indispensable to the life of animals, is also indispensable to the life of vegetables, on both which accounts it seems to have well merited the appellation of vital air, by which it was at one time designated. 1880Huxley Crayfish ii. 75 A new supply of the needful ‘vital air’, as the old chemists called it.
3. a. Of parts, organs, etc.: Essential or necessary to life; performing the functions indispensable to the maintenance of life.
In modern use also of parts of plants: vital node (see quot. 1861); vital vessels, those containing or conveying the vital fluid or latex.
1482Monk of Evesham (Arb.) 111 Onethe laste myghte be perseuyd yn hym a ful smalle meuyng as a thynne drede yn hys vytalle veynys. 1565Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Vitalis, The vitalle partes. 1615Crooke Body of Man 23 Of the Naturall parts, he disputeth in the fourth and fift Bookes; of the Vitall in the sixt and seuenth. 1667Dryden Ind. Emperor iv. x, It streams, it streams from every vital Part. 1696Phillips (ed. 5) s.v., The Vital Parts are the Heart, Brain, Lungs and Liver. 1718Prior Solomon iii. 112 Hoary with Cares, and Ignorant of Rest, We find the vital Springs relax'd and worn. 1732Berkeley Alciphr. iv. §5 The heart and brain, and other vital parts. 1832Lindley Introd. Bot. 13 The Vital vessels of Schultz. 1861Bentley Man. Bot. 119 The part where the stem and root diverge has been called the neck or collum, or formerly, the vital node, because it was erroneously supposed to be the seat of the life of the plant.
b. transf. (In modern use denoting especially those parts of a machine, ship, etc., essential to its proper working.)
1647Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §76 Their submiss Reverence to their Princes being a vital part of their Religion. 1698J. Keill Exam. Th. Earth (1734) 181 If these he has mentioned be the substantial and vital parts [of his theory]. 1866Crump Banking v. 134 Erasure of any vital part of the bill..would justify the banker in refusing payment. 1873J. Richards Wood-working Factories 12 The piston, cross⁓head connecting rod, and main bearings, are the vital parts to be looked after. 1889Welch Naval Archit. 141 To preserve intact such vital parts as the machinery, magazines, and steering gear.
4. a. Of, pertaining, or relating to, accompanying, or characteristic of life; inherent in or exhibited by living things or organic bodies.
1565Cooper Thesaurus s.v. Vitaliter, To haue liuely or vitaille motion. 1599Shakes. Hen. V, iii. vi. 49 Let not Bardolphs vitall thred bee cut with edge of Penny-cord. 1604― Oth. v. ii. 14 When I haue pluck'd thy Rose, I cannot giue it vitall growth againe. 1652French Yorksh. Spa ii. 13 In which as in a vital abode, and natural place, the water, whilest it remains, is living. 1697Dryden æneid vi. 1075 There mighty Cæsar waits his vital hour, Impatient for the world. 1705J. Dunton Life & Errors 311 The last sands in his Life were run, and there was no turning the Vital⁓glass. 1784Cowper Task iii. 509 When the temper'd heat, Friendly to vital motion, may afford Soft fomentation. 1816Shelley Alastor 238 Red morning..Shedding the mockery of its vital hues Upon his cheek of death. 1844G. Bird Urin. Deposits (1857) 47 In every case in which we endeavour to explain vital phenomena by the physical or chemical laws governing dead matter. 1873H. Spencer Stud. Sociol. xiv. 330 All actions of individuals being vital actions that conform to the laws of life at large.
b. Of faculties, functions, powers, etc.
1593Shakes. 2 Hen. VI, iii. ii. 41 Came he right now to sing a Rauens Note, Whose dismall tune bereft my vital powres. 1634Sir T. Herbert Trav. 169 It immediatly ouer-charged my vitall sences, and put mee..into a deadly trance. 1696Phillips (ed. 5), Vital Faculty, an Action whereby a Man lives..as the Motions of the Heart, Respiration, Nutrition, &c. 1805Wordsw. Prelude viii. 299 Whose truth is not a motion or a shape Instinct with vital functions. 1826S. Cooper First Lines Surg. (ed. 5) 38 By a gradual decay of the vital powers from old age. 1857Henfrey Bot. §782 The vital forces appear to be of more than one kind. 1878Huxley Physiogr. xvii. 275 The whole mass has been constructed..of the products of denudation, or of those of vital processes.
c. Geol. Produced or formed by vital action or force; of vital or organic origin.
1855J. Phillips Man. Geol. 49 Proportions of Chemical, Vital, and Mechanical Deposits. 1880Haughton Phys. Geogr. iii. 164 note, It is converted into Chemical and Vital work done by the vegetable and animal organisms that clothe the surface of the earth.
d. Of statistics: (a) concerned with or relating to the facts of life, e.g. birth, marriage, death, etc.; also transf.; (b) colloq., the measurements of a woman's figure, spec. bust, waist, and hips (cf. statistics 2 b); similarly vital measurements. (Occas. of a man's figure.)
1837[W. Farr] in McCulloch Acc. Brit. Emp. II. 567 Vital Statistics; or, the Statistics of Health, Sickness, Diseases, and Death. 1885J. Nicol (title), Vital, Social, and Economic Statistics of the City of Glasgow, 1881–85. 1949Brit. Birds XLII. 147 Vital statistics from ringed Swallows. 1956Newsweek 23 Jan. 60 New eyes open on a bright wonderful world—and photography makes identification positive, records vital statistics in life's first few minutes. 1958J. Townsend Young Devils ii. 19 A short history of the school plus its vital statistics—i.e. number of boys, teachers, classrooms, subjects and educational standards. 1971Brit. Med. Bull. XXVII. 13/2 The epidemic of iatrogenic deaths in asthmatic children shows the need for continuous monitoring of vital statistics. 1974Nature 22 Mar. 306/1 The vital statistics of this second edition command respect—94 of the 1,562 pages are needed to index its 64 chapters!
1958Observer 18 May 10/4 To control and vary our vital measurements with changing fashion. 1968G. Kent Pictorial Hist. Wrestling v. 119/1 Height 6ft. 1 in. weight 15 st. chest 48 ins. biceps 15 ins. thigh 26½ ins. Donald Dinnie and his vital measurements.
1952C. R. Cooper Teen-Age Vice (1959) viii. 125 Regina..wrote haphazardly to men, giving her age and vital statistics. 1957Times 1 Aug. 5/5 Those feminine measurements which have become known, in the entertainment world, as vital statistics. 1966Wodehouse Plum Pie 60 A book like yours always involves a serious risk for the publisher owing to the absence of the Sex Motif, which renders it impossible for him to put a nude female of impressive vital statistics on the jacket. 1975C. Weston Susannah Screaming (1976) xxv. 135 I have her phone number and vital statistics.
e. In special collocations:
vital affinity (see quot. and affinity 9). vital capacity, in Phys., the breathing or respiratory capacity of the lungs (cf. quot. 1852). vital contractility, in Phys. = irritability 3. vital germ theory = germ theory, germ n. 6 (1891 Cent. Dict.). † vital indication (see quot.). Obs.—1 † vital line, in palmistry, the line of life: see line n. 8 b. vital sister (see quot.). vital statistics (see sense 4 d). vital union, a union involving common life; also fig.
1850Daubeny Atom. The. xi. (ed. 2) 359 *Vital affinity—a force, which is supposed to come in aid of common chemical attraction, and to render the union between the particles of a body more stable.
1852J. Hutchinson Spirometer §4 The most complete voluntary expiration immediately following the most complete inspiration, which we denominate the ‘*vital capacity’. 1876J. S. Bristowe Th. & Pract. Med. (1878) 372 The vital capacity of women is much less that of men.
1830R. Knox Béchard's Anat. 216 These vessels are extensible, and are even possessed of a high degree of retractility... Their irritability or *vital contractility is not less evident.
1704J. Harris Lex. Techn. I, *Vital Indication, in the Art of Medicine, is such an one as requires the restoring and reserving of the Natural Strength of the Body.
1653R. Sanders Physiogn. 100 The *Vital line forked in the end, towards the wrist. Ibid. 102 The Liver line at a distance, and not touching the Vital line. 1824Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XVI. 602/2 The Vital line thicker than ordinary..denotes a laborious old age.
Ibid. 604 Of the Via Martis, the way or Line of Mars, or the *Vital⁓sister.
1662Stillingfl. Orig. Sacræ iii. iii. §6 Those inferiour terrestrial Beings with which it [i.e. the soul] communicates through the *vital union which it hath with the body. 1690Locke Hum. Und. ii. xxvii. §25 Several substances..which, whilst they continued in a vital union with that,..made a part of the same self. 1742Young Nt. Th. ii. 57 Is this our duty, wisdom, glory, gain? (These heav'n benign in vital union binds). 1746Wesley Princ. Methodist 49, I believe there was a supernatural Power..which occasion'd their Bodies to be so affected by the natural Laws of the vital Union.
f. Of biological stains or their use: used or carried out on living tissue. Cf. intra vitam s.v. intra prep. 2, intravital a.
1907Chem. Abstr. I. 734 The character of the vital staining and apparent deposition of the carmine as particles in the body cells of the rabbit was found under physiological conditions to be essentially as earlier described. 1912Ibid. VI. 2453 (heading) The resorption of vital coloring matters in the stomach and alimentary canal. 1926H. M. Carleton Histol. Technique xiii. 194 Janus Green.—This dye..may almost be regarded as a specific vital stain for mitochondria. 1946A. Fischer Biol. Tissue Cells iii. 68 A staining of the nucleus by ordinary vital dyes is..always a sure sign of the death of the cell. 1948New Biol. V. 28 Some dyestuffs do not kill the cell, and if they stain specific structures, this process of vital staining can give important information on the living cell. 1956Nature 25 Feb. 387/1 A large body on one side of the nucleus stains directly..with 0.1 per cent aqueous vital red. 1974Ibid. 18 Oct. 572/1 By staining with vital dyes, Bonner..showed that the cells in the anterior third of the grex become stalk cells.
5. Conferring or imparting life or vigour; invigorating, vitalizing; life-giving. Chiefly poet.
1590Spenser F.Q. ii. i. 12 Liues he yet..that wrought this act, And doen the heauens afford him vital food? 1601Holland Pliny I. 56 The whole temperature of the aire is evermore so vitall, healthie, and holesome. 1608Willet Hexapla Exod. 245 Vitall and comfortable heate..from the bodie of the sunne. 1667Milton P.L. iii. 22 Hail holy light, ofspring of Heav'n first-born..: thee I revisit safe, And feel thy sovran vital Lamp. 1719Young Revenge iii. i, O Joy, thou welcome stranger! twice three years I have not felt thy vital beam. 1744Akenside Pleas. Imag. i. 72 Till in time complete, What he admir'd and lov'd, his vital smile Unfolded into being. 1865Neale Hymns Paradise 8 There they quaff the vital sweetness of the Well of Quickening. 1872Huxley Physiol. vii. 156 The vital foods are derived directly, or indirectly, from the vegetable world.
6. Affecting life; fatal to or destructive of life.
1612Rowlands Knaue of Harts (Hunter. Cl.) 46 This Picke-pocket suffer'd vitall losse, Betweene the Court-gate hang'd, and Charing-crosse. a1645Milton Arcades 65 The celestial Sirens..That sit upon the nine enfolded sphears, And sing to those that hold the vital shears, And turn the Adamantine spindle round. 1776S. J. Pratt Pupil of Pleas. ii. 238 The surgeon, to whom I went myself, in defiance of danger, assures me the wound is vital. 1812J. C. Calhoun Speech 24 June, Wks. 1864 II. 29 Throw him into battle, and he is scarcely sensible of vital gashes.
7. fig.
a. That is essential to the existence of something expressed or implied in the context; constituting or involving an essential part or feature; absolutely indispensable, necessary, or requisite. Also, in wider sense, of supreme importance.
Common in recent use, freq. const. to something (b).
(a)1619Lushington Resurrect. Rescued (1659) 70 The three vital circumstances of a well-ordered Action, Person, Time and Place. 1692Atterbury Serm. bef. Queen 29 May 3 The weakness and worthlessness of external Performances, when compar'd with more vital and substantial Duties. 1708― Serm. bef. Queen 31 Oct. 8 A thorough Sense, and Vital Experience of his Paternal Care over us, and Concern for us. 1809–10Coleridge Friend (1865) 169 At a time when the views of France became daily more and more incompatible with our own vital interests. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. ii. I. 273 If one of them differs from the rest on a vital point. 1879F. Harrison Choice Bks. (1886) 10 The really vital books for us we also know to be a very trifling portion of the whole.
(b)1742Young Nt. Th. vi. 506 A competence is vital to content. 1856Stanley Sinai & Pal. iv. 215 Hence it was that the raising of the siege of Gibeon..was so vital to the conquest of Canaan. 1860Motley Netherl. vi. (1868) I. 289 A cause which was so vital to both nations. 1893A. Cawston Street Improv. London 1 Doubtless many will gladly take up a work so vital to the welfare of the whole community.
b. Of questions, problems, etc.
1822Hazlitt Table-T. xxxiii. II. 389, I should like to live to see the downfall of the Bourbons. That is a vital question with me. 1825Cobbett Rur. Rides 278 He and I never agreed upon this subject; and this subject was, with him, a vital one. 1850Carlyle Latter-d. Pamph. i. (1872) 31 The ‘Organisation of Labour’..is the universal vital Problem of the world. 1865Ruskin Sesame ii. §54 Respecting this question—quite vital to all social happiness.
c. Paramount, supreme, very great.
1810Wellington in Gurw. Desp. (1838) V. 529 In order to concentrate our troops on other points of greater and more vital importance. 1849Macaulay Hist. Eng. vii. II. 233 Questions respecting postures, robes, festivals and liturgies, he considered as of no vital importance. 1850Gladstone Glean. (1879) V. viii. 180 This inquiry..is indeed of vital moment to those who [etc.].
II.
8. a. Endowed with, or possessed of, life; animate, living. Now poet. or rhet.
1513Bradshaw St. Werburge i. 3470 Than this vitall glebe [sc. the body of St. Werburge] by divine ordinaunce voluntary permytted naturall resolution. 1561J. Daus tr. Bullinger on Apoc. (1573) 185 b, For who soeuer shew not themselues obedient,..onto this beast..are accompted for dead and rotten members, and therfore to be cut of from this vitall body. 1621T. Williamson tr. Goulart's Wise Vieillard 30 Of the dismall day, that doth threaten with death, Things vitall feele the smart, and things without breath. 1667Milton P.L. vi. 345 For Spirits that live throughout Vital in every part..Cannot but by annihilating die. 1745Watts in Trans. & Paraphr. Scripture xxxvii. vii, Out of the Deep, th' Almighty King did vital Beings frame. 1774J. Bryant Mythol. II. 206 He called the winds, and made them breathe into each, and render them vital. 1817Shelley Rev. Islam ii. xxvi. 6 Some monument Vital with mind. 1820― Witch Atl. xxxv, That bright shape of vital stone which drew the heart out of Pygmalion.
transf.1667Decay Chr. Piety v. ⁋25 That mind..that can be free when the body is fast bound..is never more strong and vital, than when that languishes and expires.
fig.1837J. H. Newman Par. Serm. (ed. 2) III. xiv. 219 His creed may be orthodox, but his religion is not vital. 1842Mrs. Browning Grk. Chr. Poets (1863) 97 The live grasshopper, called..an emblem of the vital Greek tongue. 1873Symonds Grk. Poets x. 320 Every line of Theocritus is vital with a strong passion for natural beauty.
b. Of places: Full of life or activity.
1742Young Nt. Th. i. 115 This is the desart, this the solitude: How populous! how vital, is the grave! 1817Shelley Rev. Islam ii. vi. 1 This vital world, this home of happy spirits.
c. Endowed with spiritual life. rare.
1807Syd. Smith Lett. Catholics (1808) 81 Those groaning and garrulous gentlemen, whom they denominate..Gospel preachers and Vital clergymen.
9. Employed as an epithet of life.
1597J. Payne Royal Exch. 13 You must be changed you know not when, from your ritches, from this vitall lyfe and the whole worlde vnto a nother place paynefull or Joyfull. 1633Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. §61 I cannot tell whether I should say those Creatures live which doth nothing; Sure I am their life is not vital. 1645― Rem. Discontents 122 Neither indeed is any other life truly vitall, but this; for hereby we enjoy God in all whatsoever occurrences.
†10. Having the qualities essential to life; capable of living; = viable a.1 Obs.
1608Topsell Serpents 108 When the Butterflyes do ioyne together very late,..they doe lay or cast theyr eggs which will continue vitall, and that may liue till the next Spring. 1615Crooke Body of Man 336 The nine-moneth birth is of all other the most vitall and legitimate. 1646Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. iv. xii. 218 Pythagoras, Hippocrates,..and others..affirming the birth of the seventh month to be vitall.
B. n.
†1. The vital spirit or principle. Obs.—1
1670Capt. J. Smith Eng. Improv. Reviv'd v. 246 When the ulcerous Lungs cannot with dexterity enough perform their Office of cooling the Heart, the Vital is generated more hot than it should be.
2. A vital part or organ. rare.
Formed from the collect. pl. vitals.
1710Oldisworth tr. Quillet's Callipœdia i. 492 A florid Bloom with Blushes decks the Face,..And every Vital breathes the sweets of Love. 1847C. Brontë J. Eyre xxxiv, Forced to keep the fire of my nature continually low, to compel it to burn inwardly..though the imprisoned flame consumed vital after vital.
3. Palmistry. The vital line.
1824Encycl. Metrop. (1845) XVI. 602/2 This also frequently shows a most perilous Saturnine disease in that part wherein it touches the Vital.
▸ vital sign n. † (a) evidence of viability (obs.); (b) Med. a clinical measurement that indicates the state of a patient's essential body functions, spec. pulse rate, respiration rate, blood pressure, or temperature; chiefly in pl.
1641Milton Reason Church-govt. ii. i. 37 After I had from my first yeeres..bin exercis'd to the tongues.., it was found that whether ought was impos'd me by them that had the overlooking, or betak'n to of mine own choise in English, or other tongue, prosing or versing, but chiefly this latter, the stile by certain vital signes it had, was likely to live. 1871E. Seguin in C. A. Wunderlich & E. Seguin Med. Thermometry & Human Temperature ii. 232 The latest records taken..with instruments.., of physiological and pathological temperature, and of other vital signs. 1951Science 18 May 581/2 Blood pressure, pulse, color, and other vital signs were within normal limits. 1966Arch. Otolaryngol. 84 255 (title) Acoustic tumor surgery. The significance of vital sign changes. 1993Lancet (BNC) 19 June 1586 Meanwhile, the repeated postponements and rising arguments over who gets what in a national health plan..have directed attention to the political calendar and the drooping vital signs of the Clinton presidency. 1996Sunday Times (Electronic Ed.) 11 Aug. Now take the car for a spin... Check vital signs such as coolant temperature. |