Also 7 vehickle. [ad. F. véhicule (= Sp. and Pg. vehiculo, It. veiculo, veicolo) or L. vehiculum, f. vehĕre to carry.]
I. 1. A substance, esp. a liquid, serving as a means for the readier application or use of another substance mixed with it or dissolved in it: a. Med. A medium of a suitable kind in which strong or unpalatable drags or medicines are administered.
1612. Woodall, Surg. Mate, Wks. (1653), 303. Let all your Vehicles for your Medicines … be soft and pleasing to your Patients.
1658. A. Fox, Würtz’ Surg., III. xix. 281. Let him have of the same pill in a convenient vehicle, of four grains.
1689. G. Harvey, Curing Dis. by Expect., v. 34. I seldom give less than half a spoonful,… diluted with a sufficient measure of a temperate Vehicle.
1733. Cheyne, Eng. Malady, II. iv. § 4 (1734), 148. Mineral Chalybeat Waters, are the most agreeable and beneficial Vehicle for such Medicines.
1771. Percival, Ess. (1777), I. 72. A sufficient dose of the medicine cannot be given on account of the heating nature of its vehicle.
1816. A. C. Hutchison, Pract. Obs. Surg. (1826), 169. The Doctor … exhibited to him an ounce of castor-oil, uncovered by any vehicle.
1875. H. C. Wood, Therap. (1879), 31. The dried petals … are almost destitute of therapeutic virtues, but their preparations are used as elegant vehicles.
fig. 1665. Boyle, Occas. Refl. (1848), 19. Both these pleasing Vehicles, if I may so call them, and Correctives of Reproofs [etc.].
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 87, ¶ 3. With what vehicles to disguise the catharticks of the soul.
1755. H. Walpole, Lett. (1846), III. 181. The invasion … I really believe was dressed up for a vehicle (as the apothecaries call it) to make us swallow the treaties.
1844. Wardlaw, Prov. (1869), II. 102. If we have a bitter … medicine to administer, we are desirous … to convey it in a pleasant vehicle.
b. In general use.
1699. Evelyn, Acetaria (1729), 149. There ought to be one of the Dishes, in which to beat and mingle the liquid Vehicles, and a second to receive the crude Herbs in.
1725. Fam. Dict., s.v. Malt-Liquor, The Substance of high dry’d Malts, which retain many fiery Particles in their Contexture, and are therefore best lost in a smooth Vehicle.
1831. J. Davies, Mat. Med., 376. It is … soluble … in more than 2000 of cold water, and 9000 of this vehicle when boiling.
1901. Brit. Med. Jrnl., No. 2097. 39. When the crusts [of eczema] form, acid. salicyl., in a vehicle of olive oil, is useful.
c. Painting. A fluid (as water, oil, etc.) with which pigments are mixed for use.
1787. Trans. Soc. Arts, V. 103. The well known disadvantages that Paintings in Oil lie under, have rendered the discovery of some other Vehicle an object of attentive enquiry.
1807. J. Opie, in Lect. Art, iv. (1848), 320. Colours … little muddled by vehicles.
1859. Gullick & Timbs, Paint., 202. The term ‘vehicle,’ which is borrowed from pharmacy, is applied in art to the fluid employed to bring pigments into a proper working state.
1883. R. Haldane, Workshop Receipts, Ser. II. 427/1. A perfect vehicle mixes readily with the pigment.
2. That which serves as a means of transmission, or as a material embodiment or manifestation, of something: a. With reference to matter or physical conditions.
1650. Bulwer, Anthropomet., 117. Drink may not be only esteemed the Vehicle of aliment.
1683. Tryon, Way to Health, 265. To cleanse and purifie those grosser Excrements, the Vehickles (or Lodgings) of malignant Spirits.
1749. Fielding, Tom Jones, X. ii. As fa, la, la, ra, da, &c. are in music, only as the vehicles of sound, and without any fixed ideas.
1779. J. Moore, View Soc. Fr. (1789), I. xxvii. 221. If the water be in reality the vehicle of this disease.
1813. Sir H. Davy, Agric. Chem. (1814), 239. Water, as it is the vehicle of the nourishment of the plant, is the substance principally given off by the leaves.
1841. Myers, Cath. Th., III. § 14. 52. There is a considerable portion of all natural food … serving rather for the vehicle than for the substance of our support.
1874. Carpenter, Ment. Phys., I. i. (1879), 3. That more advanced Philosophy of the present day, which regards Matter merely as the vehicle of Force.
b. In other contexts.
1786. Mme. D’Arblay, Diary, 8 Aug. To receive a favour through the vehicle of insolent ostentation—no! no!
1796. Morse, Amer. Geog., I. 297. They viewed the tea as a vehicle of an unconstitutional tax.
1870. Dale, Week-day Serm., ii. 51. Making the very form of Christian forgiveness the vehicle of revenge.
1876. Geo. Eliot, Dan. Der., IV. lix. 183. It is … possible to feel gratitude even where we discern a mistake that may have been injurious, the vehicle of the mistake being an affectionate intention prosecuted through a lifetime of kindly offices.
c. A substance employed as a material in or on which some work is executed.
1837. Hallam, Hist. Lit., I. i. § 58. The more extended use of paper as the vehicle of writing instead of parchment.
1850. Mrs. Jameson, Leg. Monast. Ord., 441. The whole [picture] has been significantly described as a ‘parody of Divine love.’ The vehicle, white marble,—its place in a Christian church, —enhance all its vileness.
3. A means or medium by which ideas or impressions are communicated or made known; a medium of expression or utterance.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., IV. 123. A spiritual kind of vehicle, whereby corporeal impressions are transferred to the mind.
1709. T. Robinson, Vindic. Mosaick Syst., Introd. 7. Philosophical Mythology … a more agreeable Vehicle, found out for the conveying to us the Truth and Reason of Things.
1762. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 347. It might not be improper to contradict it by some vehicle of the publick papers.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, xii. II. 138. But a metrical vehicle did not so well suit Zeno’s dialectic genius.
1887. Saintsbury, Hist. Elizab. Lit., x. (1890), 378. Quarles was a kind of journalist to whom the vehicle of verse came more easily than the vehicle of prose.
b. Const. of.
1687. Dryden, Hind & P., III. 106. And alms are but the vehicles of pray’r.
1688. J. H. Stevenson, Mr. Bays, Pref. A 2. Rhyme (which he very Judiciously somewhere calls the Vehicle of Nonsense).
1751. Johnson, Rambler, No. 121, ¶ 14. Allegory is perhaps one of the most pleasing vehicles of instruction.
1781. Cowper, Charity, 625. Did charity prevail, the press would prove A vehicle of virtue, truth, and love.
1822. Hazlitt, Table-T., Ser. II. xv. (1869), 305. Music is not made the vehicle of poetry, but poetry of music.
1856. Merivale, Rom. Emp., xxii. (1865), III. 40. In the common intercourse of life Greek became a fashionable vehicle of expression.
1885. Clodd, Myths & Dr., I. iv. 77. The myths … yielded themselves with ease as vehicles of new ideas.
c. Const. to or for.
1722. Wollaston, Relig. Nature, v. 123. Words seem to be as it were bodies or vehicles to the sense or meaning.
1753–4. Richardson, Grandison, I. xii. 67. You consider skill in Languages then as a Vehicle to Knowledge—Not I presume as Science itself.
1836. Thirlwall, Greece, xii. (1839), II. 141. It is extremely doubtful how far they were ever used as a vehicle for the exposition of theological doctrines differing from the popular creed.
c. 1850. Kingsley, Misc. (1860), I. 385. Which makes it … a far better vehicle … for many forms of thought.
1877. Dowden, Shaks. Primer, iv. 45. In the same play, rhyme is often employed as a vehicle for generalising reflections.
4. The form, the material or other shape, in which something spiritual is embodied or manifested.
Freq. c. 1650–1700, esp. of the body in relation to the soul or spirit.
a. 1652. J. Smith, Sel. Disc., V. 176. The spiritual vehicle of the soul,… a kind of umbra or aërial mantle in which the soul wraps herself.
1670. Moral State England, 121. When our souls are divested of their grosser vehicles.
1699. Burnet, 39 Art., i. 18. God being considered as the Supreme Light, this might lead men to worship the Sun as his chief Vehicle.
1756. T. Amory, J. Buncle, iv. (1770), 288. My friend is now present with his Saviour, beholding his glory, in a vehicle resembling the body of the Lord.
1773. Cook’s Voy. (1784), II. III. ix. 164. They speak of spirits being … not totally divested of those passions which actuated them when combined with material vehicles.
1836. I. Taylor, Phys. The. Another Life i. (1847), 19. There is a spiritual body and another vehicle of human nature as well as a natural body.
II. 5. A material means, channel or instrument, by which a substance or some property of matter (as sound or heat) is conveyed or transmitted from one point to another.
1615. H. Crooke, Body of Man, 80. The vmbilicall veine … is the first of all the veines,… because it is the vehicle or conueigher of blood.
1660. Boyle, New Exp. Phys. Mech., xvii. 120. If I thought your Lordship could … imagine that Light could be convey’d without … having (if I may so speak) a Body for its Vehicle.
1707. Curios. in Husb. & Gard., 39. He had observ’d … Pores or little Channels in … the Wood of different Trees…. Some of these little Vehicles of Communication go from the bottom upwards. Ibid., 49. Fibres and little Vehicles that are in the Bodies of Plants.
1776. Burney, Hist. Music (1789), I. 433. Pythagoras supposed the air to be the vehicle of sound.
1803. Imison’s Sci. & Art (1822), I. 227. Air is the usual vehicle of Sound, but it is not absolutely essential.
1861. Buckle, Civiliz., II. 499. The vapour … becomes another storehouse of heat, and a vehicle by which it is removed from the earth.
transf. 1783. Burke, Rep. Affairs of India, Wks. 1842, II. 18. Finding a great parliamentary corporation turned into a vehicle for remitting to England the private fortunes of those [etc.].
6. A means of conveyance provided with wheels or runners and used for the carriage of persons or goods; a carriage, cart, wagon, sledge or similar contrivance.
1656. Blount, Glossogr., Vehicle, a Cart, Wain, Wagon, or Chariot.
1700. Collier, 2nd Def. Short View, 56. You may take it in a Cart, or a Waggon, but … I think a Wheelbarrow may do; for the word Vehicle … will carry that sense.
1709. Tatler, No. 32, ¶ 2. She calls her Chariot, Vehicle.
1749. Byrom, Rem. (1857), II. 486. I went with Mr. Freke, who had his vehicle there, to the King’s Chapel.
1784. Johnson, in Boswell, 17 Nov. I staid at Oxford till Tuesday, and then came in the common vehicle easily to London.
1829. Lytton, Disowned, 28. The rumbling and jolting vehicle stopped at the door of a tavern in Holborn.
1856. Kane, Arctic Explor., I. x. 113. The shortest, directly fastened to the sledge runner, as a means of guiding or suddenly arresting and turning the vehicle.
1872. Yeats, Techn. Hist. Comm., 327. The direct effects of superior means of communication have been to create a better class of vehicles.
Comb. 1768. Tucker, Lt. Nat. (1834), I. 493. Such a peculiar species of insanity as vehicle-madness must have been pointed at by everybody.
1843. Zoologist, I. 36. Several vehicle-drivers tried to cut it down.
1890. Daily News, 10 Dec., 3/6. The National Coach and Van Trade Union, which comprised the whole of the workers in the vehicle-building trades.
7. Any means of carriage, conveyance or transport; a receptacle in which anything is placed in order to be moved.
1678. Butler, Hud., III. i. 1572. The Spirit hors’d him like a Sack, Upon the Vehicle, his Back.
1692. Bentley, Boyle Lect., 220. Unless the æthereal matter be supposed to be carried about the sun like a vortex or whirlpool, as a vehicle to convey it and the rest of the planets.
1728. Morgan, Hist. Algiers, I. ii. 21. The Sunbeams are so fierce and scorching, that all the Water would, infallibly, be exhal’d thro’ the Pores of those leathern Vehicles.
1774. Bryant, Mythol., II. 407. It was a cup … in which Hercules passed the seas; and the same history is given of Helius, who was said to have traversed the ocean in the same vehicle.
1812. Ann. Reg., Chron., 120. The balloon descended…. On a sudden, his crazy vehicle struck upon the roof of a house. Ibid. (1815), 4. His three sons fatally committed themselves to this treacherous vehicle [sc. a boat], in order to shoot wild-fowl.
1841. Peter Parley’s Ann., II. 250. The show-woman now procured a lamp; and, fixing it in a proper vehicle, gradually lowered it to the bottom of the well.
