Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.

Cardinal \Car"di*nal\, a. [L. cardinalis, fr. cardo the hinge of
   a door, that on which a thing turns or depends: cf. F.
   cardinal.]
   Of fundamental importance; pre["e]minent; superior; chief;
   principal.

         The cardinal intersections of the zodiac. --Sir T.
                                                  Browne.

         Impudence is now a cardinal virtue.      --Drayton.

         But cardinal sins, and hollow hearts, I fear ye.
                                                  --Shak.

   {Cardinal numbers}, the numbers one, two, three, etc., in
      distinction from first, second, third, etc., which are
      called {ordinal numbers}.

   {Cardinal points}
   (a) (Geol.) The four principal points of the compass, or
       intersections of the horizon with the meridian and the
       prime vertical circle, north, south east, and west.
   (b) (Astrol.) The rising and setting of the sun, the zenith
       and nadir.

   {Cardinal signs} (Astron.) Aries, Libra, Cancer, and
      Capricorn.

   {Cardinal teeth} (Zo["o]l.), the central teeth of bivalve
      shell. See {Bivalve}.

   {Cardinal veins} (Anat.), the veins in vertebrate embryos,
      which run each side of the vertebral column and returm the
      blood to the heart. They remain through life in some
      fishes.

   {Cardinal virtues}, pre["e]minent virtues; among the
      ancients, prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude.

   {Cardinal winds}, winds which blow from the cardinal points
      due north, south, east, or west.