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.

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)