Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Vigil \Vig"il\, n. [OE. vigile, L. vigilia, from vigil awake,
   watchful, probably akin to E. wake: cf. F. vigile. See
   {Wake}, v. i., and cf. {Reveille}, {Surveillance}, {Vedette},
   {Vegetable}, {Vigor}.]
   1. Abstinence from sleep, whether at a time when sleep is
      customary or not; the act of keeping awake, or the state
      of being awake, or the state of being awake;
      sleeplessness; wakefulness; watch. ``Worn out by the
      labors and vigils of many months.'' --Macaulay.

            Nothing wears out a fine face like the vigils of the
            card table and those cutting passions which attend
            them.                                 --Addison.

   2. Hence, devotional watching; waking for prayer, or other
      religious exercises.

            So they in heaven their odes and vigils tuned.
                                                  --Milton.

            Be sober and keep vigil, The Judge is at the gate.
                                                  --Neale
                                                  (Rhythm of St.
                                                  Bernard).

   3. (Eccl.)
      (a) Originally, the watch kept on the night before a
          feast.
      (b) Later, the day and the night preceding a feast.

                He that shall live this day, and see old age,
                Will yearly on the vigil feast his neighbors,
                And say, ``To-morrow is St. Crispian.'' --Shak.
      (c) A religious service performed in the evening preceding
          a feast.

   {Vigils, or Watchings}, {of flowers} (Bot.), a peculiar
      faculty belonging to the flowers of certain plants of
      opening and closing their petals as certain hours of the
      day. [R.]