virtue
- moral excellence; goodness; righteousness.
- conformity of one's life and conduct to moral and ethical principles; uprightness; rectitude.
- chastity; virginity: to lose one's virtue.
- a particular moral excellence.Compare cardinal virtues, natural virtue, theological virtue.
- a good or admirable quality or property: the virtue of knowing one's weaknesses.
- effective force; power or potency: a charm with the virtue of removing warts.
- virtues, an order of angels.Compare angel(def 1).
- manly excellence; valor.
- by/in virtue of, by reason of; because of: to act by virtue of one's legitimate authority.
- make a virtue of necessity, to make the best of a difficult or unsatisfactory situation.
Origin of virtue
Synonyms
See more synonyms for virtue on Thesaurus.comAntonyms
virtue
- the quality or practice of moral excellence or righteousness
- a particular moral excellencethe virtue of tolerance
- any of the cardinal virtues (prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance) or theological virtues (faith, hope, and charity)
- any admirable quality, feature, or trait
- chastity, esp in women
- archaic an effective, active, or inherent power or force
- by virtue of or in virtue of on account of or by reason of
- make a virtue of necessity to acquiesce in doing something unpleasant with a show of grace because one must do it in any case
Word Origin
Word Origin and History for by virtue of
virtue
n.
early 13c., "moral life and conduct, moral excellence," vertu, from Anglo-French and Old French vertu, from Latin virtutem (nominative virtus) "moral strength, manliness, valor, excellence, worth," from vir "man" (see virile).
For my part I honour with the name of virtue the habit of acting in a way troublesome to oneself and useful to others. [Stendhal "de l'Amour," 1822]
Phrase by virtue of (early 13c.) preserves alternative Middle English sense of "efficacy." Wyclif Bible has virtue where KJV uses power. The seven cardinal virtues (early 14c.) were divided into the natural (justice, prudence, temperance, fortitude) and the theological (hope, faith, charity). To make a virtue of a necessity (late 14c.) translates Latin facere de necessitate virtutem [Jerome].
Idioms and Phrases with by virtue of
by virtue of
Also in virtue of. On the grounds of, by reason of, as in By virtue of a large inheritance she could easily afford not to work. [Early 1300s]
virtue
see by virtue of; make a virtue of necessity.