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Voluta

Any one of numerous species of large, handsome marine gastropods belonging to Voluta and allied genera.

Voluted

Having a volute, or spiral scroll.

Volva

A saclike envelope of certain fungi, which bursts open as the plant develops.

Volvox

A genus of minute, pale-green, globular, organisms, about one fiftieth of an inch in diameter, found rolling through water, the motion being produced by minute colorless cilia. It has been considered as belonging to the flagellate Infusoria, but is now referred to the vegetable kingdom, and each globule is considered a colony of many individuals. The commonest species is Volvox globator, often called globe animalcule.

Volvulus

The spasmodic contraction of the intestines which causes colic. Any twisting or displacement of the intestines causing obstruction; ileus. See Ileus.

Vomer

A bone, or one of a pair of bones, beneath the ethmoid region of the skull, forming a part a part of the partition between the nostrils in man and other mammals. The pygostyle.

Vomica

An abscess cavity in the lungs. An abscess in any other parenchymatous organ.

Vomit

To throw up; to eject from the stomach through the mouth; to disgorge; to puke; to spew out; -- often followed by up or out.

Vomiting

The spasmodic ejection of matter from the stomach through the mouth.

Vomitive

Causing the ejection of matter from the stomach; emetic.

Vomito

The yellow fever in its worst form, when it is usually attended with black vomit. See Black vomit.

Vomiturition

An ineffectual attempt to vomit. The vomiting of but little matter; also, that vomiting which is effected with little effort.

Voodoo

Of or pertaining to voodooism, or a voodoo; as, voodoo incantations.

Voodoo economics

an economic hypothesis, proposed by President Ronald Regan, that large cuts in tax rates would so stimulate the economy that the tax revenue on the increases in business and personal income would offset the anticipated tax revenue losses, so that such tax cuts would not increasing the federal budget deficit. Its believers do not consider the actual massive deficit increases subsequent to the 1982-83 tax cut as being caused by the tax cut itself, but by other governmental policies. This hypothesis was graphically illustrated by the Laffer curve.

Voodooism

A degraded form of superstition and sorcery, said to include human sacrifices and cannibalism in some of its rites. It is prevalent among the negroes of Haiti, and to some extent in the United States, and is regarded as a relic of African barbarism.

Voortreker

One who treks before or first; a pioneer.

Voracious

Greedy in eating; very hungry; eager to devour or swallow; ravenous; gluttonous; edacious; rapacious; as, a voracious man or appetite; a voracious gulf or whirlpool.

Voracity

The quality of being voracious; voraciousness.

Voraginous

Pertaining to a gulf; full of gulfs; hence, devouring.

Vortical

Of or pertaining to a vortex or vortexes; resembling a vortex in form or motion; whirling; as, a vortical motion.

Vorticella

Any one of numerous species of ciliated Infusoria belonging to Vorticella and many other genera of the family Vorticellidae. They have a more or less bell-shaped body with a circle of vibrating cilia around the oral disk. Most of the species have slender, contractile stems, either simple or branched.

Vorticose

Vortical; whirling; as, a vorticose motion.

Votary

One devoted, consecrated, or engaged by a vow or promise; hence, especially, one devoted, given, or addicted, to some particular service, worship, study, or state of life.

Vote

To choose by suffrage; to elec/; as, to vote a candidate into office.

Voter

One who votes; one who has a legal right to vote, or give his suffrage; an elector; a suffragist; as, an independent voter.

Votive

Given by vow, or in fulfillment of a vow; consecrated by a vow; devoted; as, votive offerings; a votive tablet.

Vouch

Warrant; attestation.

Vouchee

The person who is vouched, or called into court to support or make good his warranty of title in the process of common recovery.

Voucher

One who vouches, or gives witness or full attestation, to anything.

Vouchsafe

To condescend; to deign; to yield; to descend or stoop.

Vouchsafement

The act of vouchsafing, or that which is vouchsafed; a gift or grant in condescension.

Voussoir

One of the wedgelike stones of which an arch is composed.

Vow

To make a vow, or solemn promise.

Vowel

Of or pertaining to a vowel; vocal.

Vowelize

To give the quality, sound, or office of a vowel to.

Vower

One who makes a vow.

Voyage

To travel; to pass over; to traverse.

Voyageable

That may be sailed over, as water or air; navigable.

Voyager

One who voyages; one who sails or passes by sea or water.

Voyageur

A traveler; -- applied in Canada to a man employed by the fur companies in transporting goods by the rivers and across the land, to and from the remote stations in the Northwest.

Voyol

See Viol, 2. The block through which a messenger passes.

Vugh Vugg

A cavity in a lode; -- called also vogle.

Vulcan

The god of fire, who presided over the working of metals; -- answering to the Greek Hephaestus.

Vulcanic

Of or pertaining to Vulcan; made by Vulcan; Vulcanian.

Vulcanite

Hard rubber produced by vulcanizing with a large proportion of sulphur.

Vulcanization

The act or process of imparting to caoutchouc, gutta-percha, or the like, greater elasticity, durability, or hardness by heating with sulphur under pressure.

Vulcanize

To change the properties of, as caoutchouc, or India rubber, by the process of vulcanization.

Vulcanizer

One who, or that which, vulcanizes; esp., an apparatus for vulcanizing caoutchouc.

Vulcanology

The science which treats of phenomena due to plutonic action, as in volcanoes, hot springs, etc.

Vulgarian

A vulgar person; one who has vulgar ideas. Used also adjectively.

Vulgate

Of or pertaining to the Vulgate, or the old Latin version of the Scriptures.

Vulnerability

The quality or state of being vulnerable; vulnerableness.

Vulnerableness

The quality or state of being vulnerable; vulnerability.

Vulnerary

Useful in healing wounds; adapted to the cure of external injuries; as, vulnerary plants or potions. A vulnerary remedy.

Vulneration

The act of wounding, or the state of being wounded.

Vulpes

A genus of Carnivora including the foxes.

Vulpic

Pertaining to, derived from, or designating, an acid obtained from a lichen (Cetraria vulpina) as a yellow or red crystalline substance which on decomposition yields pulvinic acid.

Vulpicide

One who kills a fox, except in hunting; also, the act of so killing a fox.

Vulpine

Of or pertaining to the fox; resembling the fox; foxy; cunning; crafty; artful.

Vulpinism

The quality of being cunning like the fox; craft; artfulness.

Vulpinite

A scaly granular variety of anhydrite of a grayish white color, used for ornamental purposes.

Vultern

The brush turkey (Talegallus Lathami) of Australia. See Brush turkey.

Vulture

Any one of numerous species of rapacious birds belonging to Vultur, Cathartes, Catharista, and various other genera of the family Vulturidae.

Vulturine

Of or pertaining to a vulture; resembling a vulture in qualities or looks; as, the vulturine sea eagle (Gypohierax Angolensis); vulturine rapacity.

Vulturism

The quality or state of being like a vulture; rapaciousness.

Vyce

A kind of clamp with gimlet points for holding a barrel head while the staves are being closed around it.

Waahoo

The burning bush; -- said to be called after a quack medicine made from it.

Wabble

A hobbling, unequal motion, as of a wheel unevenly hung; a staggering to and fro.

Wabbly

Inclined to wabble; wabbling.

Wacky Wacke

A soft, earthy, dark-colored rock or clay derived from the alteration of basalt.

Wadd Wad

An earthy oxide of manganese, or mixture of different oxides and water, with some oxide of iron, and often silica, alumina, lime, or baryta; black ocher. There are several varieties. Plumbago, or black lead.

Waddle

To trample or tread down, as high grass, by walking through it.

Waddler

One who, or that which, waddles.

Waddy

To attack or beat with a waddy.

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