viol-de-gamboys, a bass-viol, Twelfth Nt. i. 3. 27. Ital. viola di gamba, ‘a violl de gamba’ (Florio). So called because placed beside the leg instead of (like the violin) on the arm. Ital. gamba, the leg. See [de gambo].
virelay, a lay or song with a ‘veering’ arrangement of the rimes. Dryden, Flower and Leaf, 365. See Nares. F. virelay, ‘a virelay, round, freemans song’; virer, ‘to veer, turn round’ (Cotgr.).
virge, verge, a wand. B. Jonson, Tale of a Tub, v. 3 (Seriben). F. verge, a rod, wand (Cotgr.).
virginals, an instrument of the spinnet kind, but made rectangular, like a small pianoforte. Beaumont and Fl., Hum. Lieutenant, i. 1 (2 Citizen); Fair Maid of the Inn, iv. 2 (Clown). Also called a pair of virginals, Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook, ch. iii. Their name was probably derived from their being used by young girls. Hence, virginalling, lit. playing on the virginals, ‘Still virginalling upon his palm!’, Winter’s Tale, i. 2. 125 (a word coined in jealous indignation). See Nares.
visage, to look in the face, gaze on. Sir T. Elyot, Governour, book ii, c. 2, § 3. ‘I vysage, I make contenaunce to one, Ie visaige’, Palsgrave.
visitate, to survey, behold. Two Noble Kinsmen, i. 1. 161.
vively, in a life-like manner. Marston, Sophonisba, iv. 1. 154. F. vif.
vives; see [fives].
voider, a basket or tray for carrying out the relics of a dinner or other meal. Beaumont and Fl., Woman-hater, i. 3 (Lazarillo); ‘Mésciróbba, any great dish, platter, charger, voider, tray or pan’, Florio; ‘Enter . . . serving-men, one with a voider and a wooden knife’, T. Heywood, Woman Killed with Kindness (The wooden knife emptied the remnants of the food into the ‘voider’); ‘Piers Ploughman laid the cloth and Simplicity brought in the voider’, Dekker, Gul’s Hornbook, i; ‘Voyder, lanx’, Levins, Manip. In prov. use for a butler’s tray, or a large open basket; in west Yorks. it is the usual word for a clothes-basket (EDD.).
volary, a great cage for birds; ‘(she sits) Like the forsaken turtle, in the volary Of the Light Heart, the cage’, B. Jonson, New Inn, v. 1 (Prudence). Ital. voleria, ‘a volery or great cage for birds’ (Florio).