vial


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vial

a small container used for liquids: The biology student held up a vial of swamp water.
Not to be confused with:
vile – disgusting; loathsome; depraved: He’s a vile man with a cruel streak.
viol – a stringed musical instrument: He was the finest viol player in the orchestra.
Abused, Confused, & Misused Words by Mary Embree Copyright © 2007, 2013 by Mary Embree

vi·al

 (vī′əl, vīl)
n.
A small container, usually with a closure, used especially for liquids.
tr.v. vi·aled, vi·al·ing, vi·als or vi·alled or vi·al·ling
To put or keep in or as if in a vial.

[Middle English viole, variant of fiol; see phial.]
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

vial

(ˈvaɪəl; vaɪl)
n
a less common variant of phial
[C14: fiole, from Old French, from Old Provençal fiola, from Latin phiala, from Greek phialē; see phial]
Collins English Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged, 12th Edition 2014 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1994, 1998, 2000, 2003, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2014

vi•al

(ˈvaɪ əl, vaɪl)

n., v. -aled, -al•ing (esp. Brit.) -alled, -al•ling. n.
1. Also, phial. a small container, as of glass, for holding liquids.
v.t.
2. to put into or keep in a vial.
[1300–50; Middle English viole, variant of fiole phial]
Random House Kernerman Webster's College Dictionary, © 2010 K Dictionaries Ltd. Copyright 2005, 1997, 1991 by Random House, Inc. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.vial - a small bottle that contains a drug (especially a sealed sterile container for injection by needle)vial - a small bottle that contains a drug (especially a sealed sterile container for injection by needle)
bottle - a glass or plastic vessel used for storing drinks or other liquids; typically cylindrical without handles and with a narrow neck that can be plugged or capped
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations

vial

[ˈvaɪəl] Nfrasquito m
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

vial

[ˈvaɪl ˈvaɪəl] nfiole f
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

vial

nFläschchen nt, → Gefäß nt
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

vial

[ˈvaɪəl] nfiala
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

vi·al

n. frasco, ampolleta.
English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

vial

n frasco, vial m
English-Spanish/Spanish-English Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
His story was this: He had been originally nurtured among the crazy society of Neskyeuna Shakers, where he had been a great prophet; in their cracked, secret meetings having several times descended from heaven by the way of a trap-door, announcing the speedy opening of the seventh vial, which he carried in his vest-pocket; but, which, instead of containing gunpowder, was supposed to be charged with laudanum.
He watched this drop of oil with a fast-beating heart, and feeling in his pocket brought out a tiny vial of crystal, which he held secreted in his hand.
For at production of the vial all gaiety suddenly departs from Porthos and he looks the other way, but if I say I have forgotten to have the vial refilled he skips joyfully, yet thinks he still has a right to a chocolate, and when I remarked disparagingly on this to David he looked so shy that there was revealed to me a picture of a certain lady treating him for youthful maladies.
Twice a year the priests assemble all the people at the Cathedral, and get out this vial of clotted blood and let them see it slowly dissolve and become liquid-- and every day for eight days, this dismal farce is repeated, while the priests go among the crowd and collect money for the exhibition.
It is good against the Gout; it comforts the heart and strengthens the memory; and the flowers, put into a Glasse, close stopt, and set into ane hill of ants for a month, then take it out, and you will find a liquor which comes from the flowers, which keep in a vial; it is good, ill or well, and whether man or woman."
and if, after a three, four, or five years' voyage she is drawing nigh home with anything empty in her --say, an empty vial even --then, her mast-heads are kept manned to the last; and not till her skysail-poles sail in among the spires of the port, does she altogether relinquish the hope of capturing one whale more.
For in those plains and deserts where they engaged in combat and came out wounded, it was not always that there was some one to cure them, unless indeed they had for a friend some sage magician to succour them at once by fetching through the air upon a cloud some damsel or dwarf with a vial of water of such virtue that by tasting one drop of it they were cured of their hurts and wounds in an instant and left as sound as if they had not received any damage whatever.
'Has she taken her healing medicine from your hand ' 'Once or twice, madam, when I happened to be by.' 'Damoride, take this key and open the casket on the table there.' (Damoride obeys.) 'Do you see a green vial in the casket?' 'I see it, madam.' 'Take it out.' (Damoride obeys.) 'Do you see a liquid in the green vial?
Among the former he showed her a small vial, in which, he remarked, was contained a gentle yet most powerful fragrance, capable of impregnating all the breezes that blow across a kingdom.
We got an old tin lantern, and a butcher-knife with- out any handle, and a bran-new Barlow knife worth two bits in any store, and a lot of tallow candles, and a tin candlestick, and a gourd, and a tin cup, and a ratty old bedquilt off the bed, and a reticule with needles and pins and beeswax and buttons and thread and all such truck in it, and a hatchet and some nails, and a fishline as thick as my little finger with some mon- strous hooks on it, and a roll of buckskin, and a leather dog-collar, and a horseshoe, and some vials of medicine that didn't have no label on them; and just as we was leaving I found a tolerable good curry-comb, and Jim he found a ratty old fiddle-bow, and a wooden leg.
I took these vehicles and soon emptied them all; twenty of them were filled with meat, and ten with liquor; each of the former afforded me two or three good mouthfuls; and I emptied the liquor of ten vessels, which was contained in earthen vials, into one vehicle, drinking it off at a draught; and so I did with the rest.
The boy, patterning his conduct after that of his preceptor, unstoppered the vials of his invective upon the head of the enemy, until in realization of the futility of words as weapons he bethought himself of something heavier to hurl.