Vigil meaning

vĭj'əl
The definition of a vigil is a quiet gathering, usually during normal sleeping hours.

An example of a vigil is a candlelight service for someone who died.

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A watch kept during normal sleeping hours, especially over the body of a recently deceased or dying person.
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The eve of a religious festival observed by staying awake as a devotional exercise.
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Ritual devotions observed on the eve of a holy day.
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The evening or day before a festival, or the devotional services held then.
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The eve of some religious festival in which staying awake is part of the ritual devotions.
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Origin of vigil

  • Middle English vigile a devotional watching from Old French from Latin vigilia wakefulness, watch from vigil awake weg- in Indo-European roots
    From American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition
  • Middle English vigile (“a devotional watching"), from Old French vigile, from Latin vigilia (“wakefulness, watch"), from vigil (“awake"), from Proto-Indo-European *weg- (“to be strong").
    From Wiktionary
  • Related to vigor, and more distantly compare vis and vital, from similar Proto-Indo-European roots and meanings (lively, power, life), via Latin. For use of “live, alive" in sense “watching", compare qui vive.
    From Wiktionary

Vigil Sentence Examples

  • She kept her vigil for what must have been several hours.

  • And yet, it had been Josh who had stood vigil beside her sick bed, not Alex.

  • He returned accordingly to his lonely and perilous vigil on the 4th of November.

  • in 124 9 granted the prior and convent of Pontefract a market every Wednesday at Barnsley, and a fair on the vigil and feast of St Michael and two following days, and Henry VIII.

  • In 1331, at the request of John de Warenne, earl of Surrey, the king granted the "good men" of the town pavage there for three years, and in the same year the earl obtained a grant of another fair there on the vigil, day and morrow of St Oswald.

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Words near vigil in the Dictionary