vessel

[ves-uh l] /ˈvɛs əl/
noun
1.
a craft for traveling on water, now usually one larger than an ordinary rowboat; a ship or boat.
2.
an airship.
3.
a hollow or concave utensil, as a cup, bowl, pitcher, or vase, used for holding liquids or other contents.
4.
Anatomy, Zoology. a tube or duct, as an artery or vein, containing or conveying blood or some other body fluid.
5.
Botany. a duct formed in the xylem, composed of connected cells that have lost their intervening partitions, that conducts water and mineral nutrients.
Compare tracheid.
6.
a person regarded as a holder or receiver of something, especially something nonmaterial:
a vessel of grace; a vessel of wrath.
Origin
1250-1300; Middle English < Anglo-French, Old French vessel, va(i)ssel < Latin vāscellum, equivalent to vās (see vase) + -cellum diminutive suffix
Related forms
vesseled; especially British, vesselled, adjective
unvesseled, adjective
Can be confused
vassal, vessel.
Examples from the web for vessel
  • He had interrupted his studies for a stint as ship's surgeon aboard a whaling vessel.
  • With all but one of the ship's hands accounted for, all eyes turned back to the battered vessel.
  • Hijacking a ship on the high seas is not always the easiest way to obtain a vessel in which to transport stolen cargoes.
  • Even with the latest safety equipment, a ship is still a vessel that's been constructed a certain way.
  • Neither will a new campus make the vessel more seaworthy.
  • The reactor core which includes these rods, and the water it sits in, are contained within a thick steel pressure vessel.
  • Decorated polychrome vessel recovered from the burial of the hieroglyphic stairway.
  • The containment vessel for any meltdown may not even hold and in that case an untold amount of radiation could escape.
  • They suspect that a fishing vessel picked it up accidentally.
  • Turn a shadow-box frame into a vessel for your favorite things from the garden or the florist.
British Dictionary definitions for vessel

vessel

/ˈvɛsəl/
noun
1.
any object used as a container, esp for a liquid
2.
a passenger or freight-carrying ship, boat, etc
3.
an aircraft, esp an airship
4.
(anatomy) a tubular structure that transports such body fluids as blood and lymph
5.
(botany) a tubular element of xylem tissue consisting of a row of cells in which the connecting cell walls have broken down
6.
(rare) a person regarded as an agent or vehicle for some purpose or quality: she was the vessel of the Lord
Word Origin
C13: from Old French vaissel, from Late Latin vascellum urn, from Latin vās vessel
Word Origin and History for vessel
n.

c.1300, "container," from Old French vessel (French vaisseau) from Latin vascellum "small vase or urn," also "a ship," diminutive of vasculum, itself a diminutive of vas "vessel." Sense of "ship, boat" is found in English c.1300. "The association between hollow utensils and boats appears in all languages" [Weekley]. Meaning "canal or duct of the body" (especially for carrying blood) is attested from late 14c.

vessel in Medicine

vessel ves·sel (věs'əl)
n.
A duct, canal, or other tube that contains or conveys a body fluid such as blood or lymph.

vessel in Science
vessel
  (věs'əl)   

  1. A blood vessel.

  2. A long, continuous column made of the lignified walls of dead vessel elements, along which water flows in the xylem of angiosperms.


Encyclopedia Article for vessel

in botany, the most specialized and efficient conducting structure of xylem (fluid-conducting tissues). Characteristic of most flowering plants and absent from most gymnosperms and ferns, vessels are thought to have evolved from tracheids (a primitive form of water-conducting cell) by loss of the end walls.

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