vein

See also: veîn

English

Etymology

From Middle English veyne, from Anglo-Norman veine, from Latin vēna (“a blood-vessel; vein; artery”) of uncertain origin. See vēna for more. Displaced native Middle English edre, from Old English ǣdre (whence English edder).

Pronunciation

  • enPR: vān, IPA(key): /veɪn/
  • Audio (US)(file)
  • Homophones: vain, vane
  • Rhymes: -eɪn

Noun

Veins of the arm

vein (plural veins)

  1. (anatomy) A blood vessel that transports blood from the capillaries back to the heart
  2. (used in plural veins) The entrails of a shrimp
  3. (botany) In leaves, a thickened portion of the leaf containing the vascular bundle
  4. (zoology) The nervure of an insect’s wing
  5. A stripe or streak of a different colour or composition in materials such as wood, cheese, marble or other rocks
  6. A topic of discussion; a train of association, thoughts, emotions, etc.
    ...in the same vein...
    • Jonathan Swift
      He can open a vein of true and noble thinking.
  7. A style, tendency, or quality.
    The play is in a satirical vein.
    • Francis Bacon
      certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins
    • Waller
      Invoke the Muses, and improve my vein.
  8. A fissure, cleft, or cavity, as in the earth or other substance.
    • Milton
      down to the veins of earth
    • Isaac Newton
      Let the glass of the prisms be free from veins.

Translations

The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables, removing any numbers. Numbers do not necessarily match those in definitions. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout#Translations.

Verb

vein (third-person singular simple present veins, present participle veining, simple past and past participle veined)

  1. To mark with veins or a vein-like pattern.
    • 1853, Henry William Herbert, The Roman Traitor, Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, Volume II, Chapter 18, p. 204,
      […] as he ceased from that wild imprecation, a faint flash of lightning veined the remote horizon, and a low clap of thunder rumbled afar off, echoing among the hills […]
    • 1920, Melville Davisson Post, The Sleuth of St. James’s Square, Chapter 14,
      “We brought out our maps of the region and showed him the old routes and trails veining the whole of it. […] ”

See also

Further reading

  • vein in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913
  • vein in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911
  • vein at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

Estonian

vein

Etymology

Borrowed from German Wein during the 19th century, ultimately from Latin vīnum. See also viin.

Noun

vein (genitive veini, partitive veini)

  1. wine

Declension

Derived terms

Finnish

Verb

vein

  1. First-person singular indicative past form of viedä.

Anagrams

Gallo

Etymology

From Old French vin, from Latin vīnum, from Proto-Indo-European *wóyh₁nom.

Noun

vein m (plural veins)

  1. wine

Icelandic

Noun

vein n

  1. lament
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