Found 2 items, similar to vigil.
English → English (WordNet) Definition: vigil vigil n 1: a period of sleeplessness 2: a devotional watch (especially on the eve of a religious festival) [syn: watch] 3: a purposeful surveillance to guard or observe [syn: watch]
English → English (gcide) Definition: Vigil Vigil \Vig"il\, n. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake, watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See Wake, v. i., and cf. Reveille, Surveillance, Vedette, Vegetable, Vigor.] 1. Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state of being awake, or the state of being awake; sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. “Worn out by the labors and vigils of many months.” --Macaulay. [1913 Webster] Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the card table and those cutting passions which attend them. --Addison. [1913 Webster] 2. Hence, devotional watching; waking for prayer, or other religious exercises. [1913 Webster] So they in heaven their odes and vigils tuned. --Milton. [1913 Webster] Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate. --Neale (Rhythm of St. Bernard). [1913 Webster] 3. (Eccl.) (a) Originally, the watch kept on the night before a feast. (b) Later, the day and the night preceding a feast. [1913 Webster] He that shall live this day, and see old age, Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors, And say, “To-morrow is St. Crispian.” --Shak. [1913 Webster] (c) A religious service performed in the evening preceding a feast. [1913 Webster] Vigils of flowers or Watchings of flowers (Bot.), a peculiar faculty belonging to the flowers of certain plants of opening and closing their petals at certain hours of the day. [R.] [1913 Webster]