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Vital   /vˈaɪtəl/   Listen
adjective
Vital  adj.  
1.
Belonging or relating to life, either animal or vegetable; as, vital energies; vital functions; vital actions.
2.
Contributing to life; necessary to, or supporting, life; as, vital blood. "Do the heavens afford him vital food?" "And vital virtue infused, and vital warmth."
3.
Containing life; living. "Spirits that live throughout, vital in every part."
4.
Being the seat of life; being that on which life depends; mortal. "The dart flew on, and pierced a vital part."
5.
Very necessary; highly important; essential. "A competence is vital to content."
6.
Capable of living; in a state to live; viable. (R.) "Pythagoras and Hippocrates... affirm the birth of the seventh month to be vital."
Vital air, oxygen gas; so called because essential to animal life. (Obs.)
Vital capacity (Physiol.), the breathing capacity of the lungs; expressed by the number of cubic inches of air which can be forcibly exhaled after a full inspiration.
Vital force. (Biol.) See under Force. The vital forces, according to Cope, are nerve force (neurism), growth force (bathmism), and thought force (phrenism), all under the direction and control of the vital principle. Apart from the phenomena of consciousness, vital actions no longer need to be considered as of a mysterious and unfathomable character, nor vital force as anything other than a form of physical energy derived from, and convertible into, other well-known forces of nature.
Vital functions (Physiol.), those functions or actions of the body on which life is directly dependent, as the circulation of the blood, digestion, etc.
Vital principle, an immaterial force, to which the functions peculiar to living beings are ascribed.
Vital statistics, statistics respecting the duration of life, and the circumstances affecting its duration.
Vital tripod. (Physiol.) See under Tripod.
Vital vessels (Bot.), a name for latex tubes, now disused. See Latex.


noun
Vital  n.  A vital part; one of the vitals. (R.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Vital" Quotes from Famous Books



... was her dark, vital self. Outside the college, the outer darkness, Skrebensky was waiting. On the edge of the night, he was attentive. ...
— The Rainbow • D. H. (David Herbert) Lawrence
... smile often accompanies what is called "the white voice." This is a voice production where a head resonance alone is employed, without sufficient of the apoggio or enough of the mouth resonance to give the tone a vital quality. This "white voice" should be thoroughly understood and is one of the many shades of tone a singer can use at times, just as the impressionist uses various unusual colors to produce ...
— Caruso and Tetrazzini on the Art of Singing • Enrico Caruso and Luisa Tetrazzini
... Some of his male slaves grew pale and languid as if their lives were being sucked away. The people whispered that the knight commander was using their blood for magic drinks. Don Priamo wished to renew his youth; he was eager to reanimate his body with vital fires. The Grand Inquisitor of Majorca hinted at the possibility of paying a visit, with familiars and alguazils, to the apartments of the knight commander, but the latter who was a cousin of the Inquisitor, ...
— The Dead Command - From the Spanish Los Muertos Mandan • Vicente Blasco Ibanez
... not last very long, it being of vital importance for the Jews to separate their cause from that of the new-comers. The responsibility for the persecutions which took place in the first century must be attributed to them, not to the Romans, whose tolerance in religious matters had become almost a state rule. The first attempt, made ...
— Pagan and Christian Rome • Rodolfo Lanciani
... machine was logical enough if you understood it, but beyond noting that it bore striking resemblance to the vital organs of a clock, I cannot ...
— Mr. Hawkins' Humorous Adventures • Edgar Franklin


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