資料來源 : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Virtue \Vir"tue\ (?; 135), n. [OE. vertu, F. vertu, L. virtus
   strength, courage, excellence, virtue, fr. vir a man. See
   {Virile}, and cf. {Virtu}.]
   1. Manly strength or courage; bravery; daring; spirit; valor.
      [Obs.] --Shak.

            Built too strong For force or virtue ever to expugn.
                                                  --Chapman.

   2. Active quality or power; capacity or power adequate to the
      production of a given effect; energy; strength; potency;
      efficacy; as, the virtue of a medicine.

            Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue
            had gone out of him, turned him about. --Mark v. 30.

            A man was driven to depend for his security against
            misunderstanding, upon the pure virtue of his
            syntax.                               --De Quincey.

            The virtue of his midnight agony.     --Keble.

   3. Energy or influence operating without contact of the
      material or sensible substance.

            She moves the body which she doth possess, Yet no
            part toucheth, but by virtue's touch. --Sir. J.
                                                  Davies.

   4. Excellence; value; merit; meritoriousness; worth.

            I made virtue of necessity.           --Chaucer.

            In the Greek poets, . . . the economy of poems is
            better observed than in Terence, who thought the
            sole grace and virtue of their fable the sticking in
            of sentences.                         --B. Jonson.

   5. Specifically, moral excellence; integrity of character;
      purity of soul; performance of duty.

            Virtue only makes our bliss below.    --Pope.

            If there's Power above us, And that there is all
            nature cries aloud Through all her works, he must
            delight in virtue.                    --Addison.

   6. A particular moral excellence; as, the virtue of
      temperance, of charity, etc. ``The very virtue of
      compassion.'' --Shak. ``Remember all his virtues.''
      --Addison.

   7. Specifically: Chastity; purity; especially, the chastity
      of women; virginity.

            H. I believe the girl has virtue. M. And if she has,
            I should be the last man in the world to attempt to
            corrupt it.                           --Goldsmith.

   8. pl. One of the orders of the celestial hierarchy.

            Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers.
                                                  --Milton.

   {Cardinal virtues}. See under {Cardinal}, a.

   {In}, or {By}, {virtue of}, through the force of; by
      authority of. ``He used to travel through Greece by virtue
      of this fable, which procured him reception in all the
      towns.'' --Addison. ``This they shall attain, partly in
      virtue of the promise made by God, and partly in virtue of
      piety.'' --Atterbury.

   {Theological virtues}, the three virtues, faith, hope, and
      charity. See --1 Cor. xiii. 13.