vein

plural veins · alternative obsolete wayn

1. anatomyA blood vessel that transports blood from the capillaries back to the heart.

   The nurse hovered her vein finder to locate the veins in the patient's body.

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   An vncouth paine torments my grieued ſoule, And death arreſts the organe of my voyce. Who entring at the breach thy ſword hath made, Sackes euery vaine and artier of my heart, […]

   c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii

2. in pluralThe entrails of a shrimp.
3. biologyIn leaves, a thickened portion of the leaf containing the vascular bundle.
4. biologyThe nervure of an insect’s wing.
5. A stripe or streak of a different colour or composition in materials such as wood, cheese, marble or other rocks.

   Synonyms: reef

6. geographyA sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock.

   They general­ly occur in the earth in what are called veins, and are seldom found in the pure metallic state, but generally in combination with some other substance, in which state they are call­ed ores.

   1846, editorial staff, “CHEMISTRY”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 2, Issue 13, page 102

7. figurativelyA topic of discussion; a train of association, thoughts, emotions, etc.

   in the same vein

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   He[…]is able to open new scenes, and discover a vein of true and noble thinking.

   1712, Jonathan Swift, A Proposal For Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue

   Come ride with me Through the veins of history, I'll show you how God Falls asleep on the job

   2006, Matt Bellamy, “Knights of Cydonia”, in Black Holes and Revelations, performed by Muse

8. figurativelyA style, tendency, or quality.

   The play is in a satirical vein.

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   certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins

   1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Truth”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC

   Invoke the Muses, and improve my vein.

   1645, Edmund Waller, The Battle Of The Summer Islands

9. A fissure, cleft, or cavity, as in the earth or other substance.

   down to the veins of earth

   1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a]nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a]nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC

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   I took another Prism therefore which was free from Veins

   1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC

present singular third person veins · participle present veining · participle past veined · past veined · alternative obsolete wayn

1. To mark with veins or a vein-like pattern.

   “We brought out our maps of the region and showed him the old routes and trails veining the whole of it. […]”

   1920, Melville Davisson Post, chapter 14, in The Sleuth of St. James’s Square

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   […] as he ceased from that wild imprecation, a faint flash of lightning veined the remote horizon, and a low clap of thunder rumbled afar off, echoing among the hills […]

   1853, Henry William Herbert, chapter 18, in The Roman Traitor, volume II, Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, page 204