vein

• wayn (obsolete)

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

• enPR: vān, IPA^(key): /veɪn/

• Audio (US)

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• Homophones: vain, vane
• Rhymes: -eɪn

vein (plural veins)

1. (anatomy) A blood vessel that transports blood from the capillaries back to the heart.

   Hyponyms: deep vein, perforator vein, superficial vein

   • c. 1587–1588, [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire, London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii:

     An vncouth paine torments my grieued ſoule,
     And death arreſts the organe of my voyce.
     Who entring at the breach thy ſword hath made,
     Sackes euery vaine and artier of my heart, […]

2. (in the plural) 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.
   1. (geology) A sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock.
6. (figurative) A topic of discussion; a train of association, thoughts, emotions, etc.

   in the same vein

   • 1712, Jonathan Swift, A Proposal For Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue:

     He […] is able to open new scenes, and discover a vein of true and noble thinking.

   • 2006, Matt Bellamy (lyrics and music), “Knights of Cydonia”, in Black Holes and Revelations, performed by Muse:

     Come ride with me
     Through the veins of history,
     I'll show you how God
     Falls asleep on the job

7. (figurative) A style, tendency, or quality.

   The play is in a satirical vein.

   • 1625, Francis [Bacon], “Of Truth”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC:

     certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins

   • 1645, Edmund Waller, The Battle Of The Summer Islands:

     Invoke the Muses, and improve my vein.

8. A fissure, cleft, or cavity, as in the earth or other substance.
   • 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC:

     down to the veins of earth

   • 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “(please specify |book=1 to 3)”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC:

     I took another Prism therefore which was free from Veins

• (anatomy): vena

• nervure

• venation
• venous

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, chapter 18, in The Roman Traitor‎, volume II, Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, page 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, chapter 14, in The Sleuth of St. James’s Square‎:

     “We brought out our maps of the region and showed him the old routes and trails veining the whole of it. […] ”

• artery
• blood vessel
• capillary
• circulatory system
• phlebitis
• vena cava

• vein on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• vein (geology) on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
• “vein”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
• “vein”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911, →OCLC.
• “vein”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

• Vien, Vine, nevi, vine

Borrowed from German Wein during the 19th century, ultimately from Latin vīnum. Doublet of viin.

vein (genitive veini, partitive veini)

1. wine

• punane vein
• valge vein

vein

1. first-person singular indicative past of viedä

vein

1. instructive plural of vee

• evin, vien

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

vein m (plural veins)

1. wine

Back-formation from veina (“to wail”).

• IPA^(key): /veiːn/
• Rhymes: -eiːn

vein n (genitive singular veins, nominative plural vein)

1. wail, lament

From Old French vain, from Latin vānus (“empty”). The noun is derived from the adjective.

vein

1. vain (worthless, useless)
2. vain (futile, ineffectual)
3. unfounded, false, misleading
4. (of a person, the heart, the mind, etc.) foolish, gullible

• veine, veigne, veiin, veiine, ven, vain, vaine, wein, wain, waine

• English: vain
• Scots: vane, vain, vaine

vein (uncountable)

1. something that is worthless or futile
2. idleness, triviality

• weine; wan, wane (Northern); feinne (Southwestern)

• English: vain

• “vein, n.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
• “vein, adj.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

vein (plural veines)

1. Alternative form of veine (“vein”)

vein

1. Alternative form of fain