{ } a. Of or pertaining to Avernus, a lake of Campania, in Italy, famous for its poisonous vapors, which ancient writers fancied were so malignant as to kill birds flying over it. It was represented by the poets to be connected with the infernal regions. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Governableness. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. F. gouvernable. ] Capable of being governed, or subjected to authority; controllable; manageable; obedient. Locke. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being governable; manageableness.

/mhw>, n. [ Cf. F. gouvernail helm, rudder, L. gubernaculum. ] Management; mastery. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. gouvernance. ] Exercise of authority; control; government; arrangement. Chaucer. J. H. Newman. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. gouvernante. See Govern. ] A governess. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. Misgovernment; misconduct; misbehavior. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. Spenser. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Not vernacular. [ 1913 Webster ]

A nonvernacular expression. Sir W. Hamilton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To name over or in a series; to recount. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Not governable; not capable of being governed, ruled, or restrained; licentious; wild; unbridled; as, ungovernable passions. -- Un*gov"ern*a*bly, adv. Goldsmith. [1913 Webster]

n. See Veronica, 1. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. vernaculus born in one's house, native, fr. verna a slave born in his master's house, a native, probably akin to Skr. vas to dwell, E. was. ] Belonging to the country of one's birth; one's own by birth or nature; native; indigenous; -- now used chiefly of language; as, English is our vernacular language. “A vernacular disease.” Harvey. [ 1913 Webster ]

His skill in the vernacular dialect of the Celtic tongue. Fuller. [ 1913 Webster ]

Which in our vernacular idiom may be thus interpreted. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The vernacular language; one's mother tongue; often, the common forms of expression in a particular locality, opposed to literary or learned forms. [ 1913 Webster + PJC ]

n. A vernacular idiom. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The act or process of making vernacular, or the state of being made vernacular. Fitzed. Hall. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. In a vernacular manner; in the vernacular. Earle. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. vernaculus. See Vernacular. ] 1. Vernacular. [ Obs. ] Sir T. Browne. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. [ L. vernaculi, pl., buffoons, jesters. ] Scoffing; scurrilous. [ A Latinism. Obs. ] “Subject to the petulancy of every vernaculous orator.” B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ It. vernaccia. ] A kind of sweet wine from Italy. [ Obs. ] Chaucer. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. vernalis, fr. vernus vernal, ver spring; akin to Gr. 'e`ar, Skr. vasanta, Icel. vār, and E. Easter, east. ] 1. Of or pertaining to the spring; appearing in the spring; as, vernal bloom. [ 1913 Webster ]

And purple all the ground with vernal flowers. Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Fig.: Belonging to youth, the spring of life. [ 1913 Webster ]

When after the long vernal day of life. Thomson. [ 1913 Webster ]

And seems it hard thy vernal years
Few vernal joys can show? Keble. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ 1913 Webster ]

Vernal equinox (Astron.), the point of time in each year when the sun crosses the equator when proceeding northward, about March 21, when day and night are of approximately equal duration. The beginning of the Spring season. --
Vernal grass (Bot.), a low, soft grass (Anthoxanthum odoratum), producing in the spring narrow spikelike panicles, and noted for the delicious fragrance which it gives to new-mown hay; -- also called sweet vernal grass. See Illust. in Appendix. --
Vernal signs (Astron.), the signs, Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, in which the sun appears between the vernal equinox and summer solstice. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. vernans, p. pr. vernare to flourish, from ver spring. ] Flourishing, as in spring; vernal. [ Obs. ] “Vernant flowers.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. [ See Vernant. ] To become young again. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. vernation: cf. L. vernatio the sloughing of the skin of snakes. ] (Bot.) The arrangement of the leaves within the leaf bud, as regards their folding, coiling, rolling, etc.; prefoliation. [ 1913 Webster ]