Chapter V to Valerian of V by Brewer's Phrase & Fable

V to Valerian

V. D. M on monuments is Vir Dei Minister, or Verbi Dei Minister.

V. D. M. I. A. E (Verbum Dei manet in aeternum). The word of God endureth for ever. The inscription on the livery of the servants of the Duke of Saxony and Landgrave of Hesse, the Lutheran princes, at the Diet of Spires in 1526.

V. V. V. the letters found on the coin of the 20th Roman legion, stand for “Valeria, Vicesima, Victrix.”

Vacuum now means a space from which air has been expelled. Descartes says, “If a vacuum could be effected in a vessel the sides would be pressed into contact.” Galileo said, “Nature abhors a vacuum,” to account for the rise of water in pumps. (See Point .)

Vacuum Boyleanum Such a vacuum as can be produced by Boyle's improved air-pump, the nearest approach to a vacuum practicable with human instruments.
   The Guerickian vacuum is that produced by ordinary air-pumps, so called from Otto von Guericke, who devised the air-pump.
   The Torricellian vacuum is the vacuum produced by a mercury-pump.

Vade Mecum [a go-with-me ]. A pocket-book, memorandum-book, pocket cyclopaedia, lady's pocket companion, or anything else which contains many things of daily use in a small compass.

Vae Victis! Woe to the vanquished.

Vail (To). To lower; to cast down. Brutus complained that he had not lately seen in Cassius that courtesy and show of love which he used to notice; to which Cassius replies, “If I have vailed [lowered] my looks, I turn the trouble of my countenance merely on myself. Vexed I am of late ... [and this may] give some soil to my behaviour.”

“His hat, which never vailed to human pride,
Walker with reverence took and laid aside.”
Dunciad, iv.

Vails Blackmail in the shape of fees to servants. (From the Latin verb valeo, to be worth, to be of value; French, valoir.) The older form was avails.

“Vails to servants being much in fashion.”
Russell: Representative Actors.

Vain as a Peacock (See Similes .)

Valdarno The valley of the Arno, in Tuscany.

“- the Tuscan artist [Galileo] views
At evening from the top of Fesole,
Or in Valdarno?”
Milton: Paradise Lost, bk. i. 207-200.

Vale of Avoca in Wicklow, Ireland.

“Sweet Vale of Avoca, how calm could I rest
In thy bosom of shade, with the friends I love best.”
T. Moore: Irish Melodies, No. 1 (The Meeting of the Waters.

Vale of Tears This world. (See Baca .)

Vale of Bonnet (To). To cap to a superior; hence to strike sail, to lower (French, avaler, to take off.)

“My wealthy Andrew docked in sand,
Vailing her high-top lower than her ribs.”
Shakespeare: Merchant of Venice, i. 1