Meanings
plural vigilies
- obsoleteA vigil.
[...] distortion of the Eyes, from a confused and irregular expansion of the Optick Nerve, attended with ar extraordinary fierceness in the whole Visage, continual Vigilies, and a constant Trepidation, […]
1694, Royal Society (Great Britain), Philosophical Transactions, Giving Some Account of the Present Undertakings, Studies, and Labours of the Ingenious, in Many Considerable Parts of the World, page 242 more examples
Obserue the fastes commandit on certane daies and tymes, as in Lent, in the four tymes of the yeer (comunlie callit Imber daies) and in the euinnes or vigilies of certane solemne daies, on friday and saturday abstein from eating of[…]
1901, Thomas Graves Law, Catholic Tractates of the Sixteenth Century, 1573-1600, page 210[...]; other times the heat is not very intense either without or within; continual vigilies, or a perpetual restlesness, with anguishing Jactitations, or throwing ones self from one part of the Bed to the other[…]
1673, Gideon Harvey, A Discourse of the Plague, page 133
Origin
- Latinvigilia
- Middle Englishvigilye
- Englishvigily
From Middle English vigilye, vigilie, from Latin vigilia.
More words from Middle English, Latin
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
vigily. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vigily
“vigily.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vigily. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “vigily,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/vigily.
Source: vigily on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.