vein

English

Alternative forms

• wayn (obsolete)

Etymology

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).

Pronunciation

• enPR: vān, IPA^(key): /veɪn/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Homophones: vain, vane
• Rhymes: -eɪn

Noun

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: 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 Smith, and Benj Walford, printers to the Royal Society, , →OCLC:

     I took another Prism therefore which was free from Veins

Synonyms

• (anatomy): vena

Hyponyms

• nervure

Derived terms

Related terms

• venation
• venous

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, 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. […] ”

See also

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

Further reading

• 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.

Anagrams

• Vien, Vine, nevi, vine

Estonian

Estonian Wikipedia has an article on:

vein

Wikipedia ^et

Etymology

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

Noun

vein (genitive veini, partitive veini)

1. wine

Declension

Derived terms

• punane vein
• valge vein

Finnish

Verb

vein

1. first-person singular indicative past of viedä

Noun

vein

1. instructive plural of vee

Anagrams

• evin, vien

Gallo

Etymology

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

Noun

vein m (plural veins)

1. wine

Icelandic

Etymology

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

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /veiːn/
• Rhymes: -eiːn

Noun

vein n (genitive singular veins, nominative plural vein)

1. wail, lament

Declension

Middle English

Etymology 1

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

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

Alternative forms

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

Descendants

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

Noun

vein (uncountable)

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

Alternative forms

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

Descendants

• English: vain

References

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

Etymology 2

Noun

vein (plural veines)

1. Alternative form of veine (“vein”)

Etymology 3

Adverb

vein

1. Alternative form of fain