vigil

Definition

An instance of keeping awake during normal sleeping hours, especially to keep watch or pray.

Etymology

From Middle English vigile (“a devotional watching”), from Old French vigile, from Latin vigilia (“wakefulness, watch”), from vigil (“awake”), from Proto-Indo-European *weǵ- (“to be strong, lively, awake”). Doublet of Wigilia. See also wake and vigor, from the same root.

Example Sentences

• "I saw her head drooped upon her hand; her whole attitude expressing that profound depression, whose lonely vigil wastes the midnight in a gloomy watch, which yet hopes for nothing at its close."
• "Eventually the body trade grew so reckless that relatives took to holding graveside vigils, lest their loved ones disappear in the night."
• "A vigil was held for Ms. Cheptegei on Wednesday night, Ms. Indimuli said, with many women praying that she would survive."

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