VIRTUE

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does virtue mean? 

• VIRTUE (noun)
  The noun VIRTUE has 4 senses:

1. the quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong

2. any admirable quality or attribute

3. morality with respect to sexual relations

4. a particular moral excellence

  Familiarity information: VIRTUE used as a noun is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• VIRTUE (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

The quality of doing what is right and avoiding what is wrong

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

moral excellence; virtue; virtuousness

Hypernyms ("virtue" is a kind of...):

good; goodness (moral excellence or admirableness)

Derivation:

virtuous (morally excellent)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Any admirable quality or attribute

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

merit; virtue

Context example:

work of great merit

Hypernyms ("virtue" is a kind of...):

worth (the quality that renders something desirable or valuable or useful)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Morality with respect to sexual relations

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Synonyms:

chastity; sexual morality; virtue

Hypernyms ("virtue" is a kind of...):

morality (concern with the distinction between good and evil or right and wrong; right or good conduct)

Attribute:

chaste (morally pure (especially not having experienced sexual intercourse))

unchaste (not chaste)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "virtue"):

honor; honour; pureness; purity (a woman's virtue or chastity)

Derivation:

virtuous (in a state of sexual virginity)

Sense 4

Meaning:

A particular moral excellence

Classified under:

Nouns denoting attributes of people and objects

Hypernyms ("virtue" is a kind of...):

good; goodness (moral excellence or admirableness)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "virtue"):

cardinal virtue (one of the seven preeminent virtues)

Derivation:

virtuous (morally excellent)

 Context examples 

By virtue of these domains they have the potent for both cell adhesion and protease activities.

(ADAM Family Protein, NCI Thesaurus)

When we make little sacrifices we like to have them appreciated, at least, and for a minute Amy was sorry she had done it, feeling that virtue was not always its own reward.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

By the virtues that I once possessed, I demand this from you.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Fine dancing, I believe, like virtue, must be its own reward.

(Emma, by Jane Austen)

That punishment, the public punishment of disgrace, should in a just measure attend his share of the offence is, we know, not one of the barriers which society gives to virtue.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

There was, furthermore, another virtue in the fan-formation.

(White Fang, by Jack London)

I used to breakfast with them now, in virtue of some arrangement, of which I have forgotten the details.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It has connected him nearer with virtue than with any other feeling.

(Pride and Prejudice, by Jane Austen)

I only do for your good; but there is much virtue to you in those so common flowers.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

My dear Watson, said he, I cannot agree with those who rank modesty among the virtues.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)