Found 2 items, similar to Cardinal virtues.
English → English (WordNet) Definition: cardinal virtue cardinal virtue n : one of the seven preeminent virtues
English → English (gcide) Definition: Cardinal virtues Virtue \Vir"tue\ (?; 135), n. [OE. vertu, F. vertu, L. virtus strength, courage, excellence, virtue, fr. vir a man. See Virile, and cf. Virtu.] 1. Manly strength or courage; bravery; daring; spirit; valor. [Obs.] --Shak. [1913 Webster] Built too strong For force or virtue ever to expugn. --Chapman. [1913 Webster] 2. Active quality or power; capacity or power adequate to the production of a given effect; energy; strength; potency; efficacy; as, the virtue of a medicine. [1913 Webster] Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about. --Mark v. 30. [1913 Webster] A man was driven to depend for his security against misunderstanding, upon the pure virtue of his syntax. --De Quincey. [1913 Webster] The virtue of his midnight agony. --Keble. [1913 Webster] 3. Energy or influence operating without contact of the material or sensible substance. [1913 Webster] She moves the body which she doth possess, Yet no part toucheth, but by virtue's touch. --Sir. J. Davies. [1913 Webster] 4. Excellence; value; merit; meritoriousness; worth. [1913 Webster] I made virtue of necessity. --Chaucer. [1913 Webster] In the Greek poets, . . . the economy of poems is better observed than in Terence, who thought the sole grace and virtue of their fable the sticking in of sentences. --B. Jonson. [1913 Webster] 5. Specifically, moral excellence; integrity of character; purity of soul; performance of duty. [1913 Webster] Virtue only makes our bliss below. --Pope. [1913 Webster] If there's Power above us, And that there is all nature cries aloud Through all her works, he must delight in virtue. --Addison. [1913 Webster] 6. A particular moral excellence; as, the virtue of temperance, of charity, etc. “The very virtue of compassion.” --Shak. “Remember all his virtues.” --Addison. [1913 Webster] 7. Specifically: Chastity; purity; especially, the chastity of women; virginity. [1913 Webster] H. I believe the girl has virtue. M. And if she has, I should be the last man in the world to attempt to corrupt it. --Goldsmith. [1913 Webster] 8. pl. One of the orders of the celestial hierarchy. [1913 Webster] Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers. --Milton. [1913 Webster] Cardinal virtues. See under Cardinal, a. In virtue of, or By virtue of, through the force of; by authority of. “He used to travel through Greece by virtue of this fable, which procured him reception in all the towns.” --Addison. “This they shall attain, partly in virtue of the promise made by God, and partly in virtue of piety.” --Atterbury. Theological virtues, the three virtues, faith, hope, and charity. See --1 Cor. xiii. 13. [1913 Webster] Cardinal \Car"di*nal\, a. [L. cardinalis, fr. cardo the hinge of a door, that on which a thing turns or depends: cf. F. cardinal.] Of fundamental importance; pre["e]minent; superior; chief; principal. [1913 Webster] The cardinal intersections of the zodiac. --Sir T. Browne. [1913 Webster] Impudence is now a cardinal virtue. --Drayton. [1913 Webster] But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye. --Shak. [1913 Webster] Cardinal numbers, the numbers one, two, three, etc., in distinction from first, second, third, etc., which are called ordinal numbers. Cardinal points (a) (Geol.) The four principal points of the compass, or intersections of the horizon with the meridian and the prime vertical circle, north, south east, and west. (b) (Astrol.) The rising and setting of the sun, the zenith and nadir. Cardinal signs (Astron.) Aries, Libra, Cancer, and Capricorn. Cardinal teeth (Zo["o]l.), the central teeth of bivalve shell. See Bivalve. Cardinal veins (Anat.), the veins in vertebrate embryos, which run each side of the vertebral column and returm the blood to the heart. They remain through life in some fishes. Cardinal virtues, pre["e]minent virtues; among the ancients, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude. Cardinal winds, winds which blow from the cardinal points due north, south, east, or west. [1913 Webster]