''vein'' ▫ᴱᴺ Entries

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''vein'' ▫ᴱᴺ｜Definition｜1st｜20260904120411-00-⌔

vein - Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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Noun

vein (plural veins)

• (anatomy) A blood vessel that transports blood from the capillaries back to the heart.
  • ✤ Hyponyms: deep vein, perforator vein, superficial vein
  • ✤ The nurse hovered her vein finder to locate the veins in the patient’s body.
  • ✤ An vncouth paine torments my grieued ſoule,
    And death arreſts the organe of my voyce.
    Who entring at the breach thy ſword hath made,
    Sackes euery vaine and artier of my heart, […]¹
• (in the plural) The entrails of a shrimp.
• (botany) In leaves, a thickened portion of the leaf containing the vascular bundle.
• (zoology) The nervure of an insect ’s wing.
• A stripe or streak of a different colour or composition in materials such as wood, cheese, marble or other rocks.
  • ✤ Synonym: reef
• (geology) A sheetlike body of crystallized minerals within a rock.
  • ✤ They general­ly occur in the earth in what are called veins, and are seldom found in the pure metallic state, but generally in combination with some other substance, in which state they are call­ed ores.²
• (figurative) A topic of discussion; a train of association, thoughts, emotions, etc.
  • ✤ *in the same vein *
  • ✤ He […] is able to open new scenes, and discover a vein of true and noble thinking.³
  • ✤ Come ride with me
    Through the veins of history,
    I’ll show you how God
    Falls asleep on the job⁴
• (figurative) A style, tendency, or quality.
  • ✤ The play is in a satirical vein.
  • ✤ *certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins *⁵
  • ✤ Invoke the Muses, and improve my vein.⁶
• A fissure, cleft, or cavity, as in the earth or other substance.
  • ✤ down to the veins of earth⁷
  • ✤ *I took another Prism therefore which was free from Veins *⁸

Verb

vein (third-person singular simple present veins, present participle veining, simple past and past participle veined)

• To mark with veins or a vein-like pattern.
  • ✤ […] as he ceased from that wild imprecation, a faint flash of lightning veined the remote horizon, and a low clap of thunder rumbled afar off, echoing among the hills […]⁹
  • ✤ “We brought out our maps of the region and showed him the old routes and trails veining the whole of it. […]”¹⁰

Etymology

From Middle English veine, borrowed from Anglo-Norman veine, from Latin vēna (“a blood-vessel; vein; artery”) of uncertain origin. See vēna for more. Doublet of vena. Displaced native edre, from ǣdre (whence edder).

Pronunciation

• enPR: vān, (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /veɪn/
  • Audio (US): 🔊
• (Scotland) IPA: /ven/
• (Wales, without the pane–pain merger) IPA: /vein/
• Homophones: vain; vane (pane–pain merger)
• Rhymes: -eɪn

Printed 2026-09-04.

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Footnotes

1. c. 1587–1588 (date written), [Christopher Marlowe], Tamburlaine the Great. […] The First Part […], 2nd edition, part 1, London: […] [R. Robinson for] Richard Iones, […], published 1592, →OCLC; reprinted as Tamburlaine the Great (A Scolar Press Facsimile), Menston, Yorkshire; London: Scolar Press, 1973, →ISBN, Act II, scene vii: ↩

2. 1846, editorial staff, “CHEMISTRY”, in Scientific American, series 1, Volume 2, Issue 13, page 102: ↩

3. 1712, Jonathan Swift, A Proposal For Correcting, Improving, and Ascertaining the English Tongue: ↩

4. 2006, Matt Bellamy, “Knights of Cydonia”, in Black Holes and Revelations, performed by Muse: ↩

5. 1625, Francis[Bacon], “Of Truth”, in The Essayes […], 3rd edition, London: […] Iohn Haviland for Hanna Barret, →OCLC: ↩

6. 1645, Edmund Waller, The Battle Of The Summer Islands: ↩

7. 1667, John Milton, “Book X”, in Paradise Lost. […], London: […] [Samuel Simmons], and are to be sold by Peter Parker […]; [a] nd by Robert Boulter […]; [a] nd Matthias Walker, […], →OCLC; republished as Paradise Lost in Ten Books: […], London: Basil Montagu Pickering […], 1873, →OCLC: ↩

8. 1704, I[saac] N[ewton], “”, in Opticks: Or, A Treatise of the Reflexions, Refractions, Inflexions and Colours of Light. […], London: […] Sam[uel] Smith, and Benj[amin] Walford, printers to the Royal Society, […], →OCLC: ↩

9. 1853, Henry William Herbert, chapter 18, in The Roman Traitor ‎${}^{[1]}$, volume II, Philadelphia: T.B. Peterson, page 204: ↩

10. 1920, Melville Davisson Post, chapter 14, in The Sleuth of St. James’s Square ‎${}^{[2]}$: ↩

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