Virtue — Defs

01 n. Manly strength or courage; bravery; daring; spirit; valor.

1.
Manly strength or courage; bravery; daring; spirit; valor.[Obs.]
“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.
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.
One of the orders of the celestial hierarchy.
“Thrones, dominations, princedoms, virtues, powers.” — Milton.

Phrases & compounds

Cardinal virtues — See under Cardinal, a.

In virtue of — through the force of; by authority of.

Theological virtues — the three virtues, faith, hope, and charity. See 1 Cor. xiii. 13. — 1 Cor. xiii. 13.