Here - Norm's Book Club

VAGUE.
trastyd..hymself afiir in the desperat handes of the Cardinall.
15*8 Rov Rede me (Arb.) 120 Yf they playe thus
their vages, They shall not escape the plages Which to
theym ofRome happened, a 1548 Hall CkroiU, Hen, VIII,
352 b, The Scottcs had some Icysure to play their vagues
and folowe their accustomed manier. c 1557 Abf. Parker
Ps. civ, There playth his vages Leviathan.
{b) 1526 Pilgr. Per/. (W. de \V. 1531) 80 b, She despyseth
all outwarde vages & vanytees, & is content to fulfyli all y'
her lady commaundeth. iS»6 Skelton Magnyf. 1968 Because
of theyr neglygence and of thej'r wanton vagys, I
vysyte them and stryke them with many sore plagys.
Vague (vtf'g), a.,a£/2'., j(J.2 Alsoyvage. [% F.
vague (13th c.) or ad. L. vag-us wandering, incon-
stant, uncertain, etc. (hence also It., Sp., Pg. vago).'\
1. Of statements, etc. : Cooched in general or
indefinite terms ; not definitely or precisely expressed
; deficient in details or particulars.
1548 VicARY Anat. (18S8) 15 Likewise a Chirurgion must
take heede that he deceiue no man with bis vague promises.
a i66i Fuller Worthiest Durham i. (1662) 298 With
subiilty not light, slight, vage as air, But such as Truth
doth crown. 1750 Johnson RantbUr No. 76 F 8 Men often
extenuate their own guilt, only by vague and general
charges upon others. 1784 Cowper Task \\. 521 Their
answers, vague. And all at random. 184^ Thirlwall Greece
Vin. 179 He remained inflexible, covering his refusal with
the vague pretext, ' that circumstances were not in his
power*. 1849 Macaulay Hist. Eng. ix. U. ^00 He wanted
..to have, not vague professions of good will, but distinct
invitations and promises of support. 1884 Laxu Times Rep.
XLIX. 773/2 The statement of claim is so vague that we
had to go into detail, so as to make the case clear.
2. Of words, language, etc. : Not precise or
exact in meaning.
1690 Locke Hum. Uttd. To Rdr., Vague and insignificant
forms of speech, and abuse of language, have so long passed
for mj-steries of science. 1744 Harris Three Treat. Wks.
(1841)2 So it was., with a thousand words beside, all no less
common, and equally familiar; and yet all of them equally
vague and undetermined, a 1781 R. Watson Philip III
(1793) \. \\\. 306 It was conceived in vague and general terms.
179(5 KiRWAN Elem.^ Min. (ed. 2) L Pref. p. xi. Its descriptive
language was. .arbitrary, vague and ambiguous, 1813 J.
Thomson Led. Inflam. 502 By an indiscriminate use of
vague terms. 1849 Macaulay Hist.Eng. vL II. 152 These
vague phrases were not likely to quiet the perturbed mind
of the minister. 1870 Farrar Fant. Speech iii. (1873) 87 But
the name Chaldee is so vague and misleading that I have
purposely excluded it. 1900 E. Holmes What is Poetry f
79 Vague words, then, stir emotion ; exact terms repress it.
Ifig. 18x3 Shelley Q. i1/*^viii. 23 Like the vague sighings
of a wind at even, That wakes the wavelets of the slumbering
sea, And dies on the creation of its breath.
3. Of ideas, knowledge, etc. : Lacking in defin-
iteness or precision ; indefinite, indistinct.
a 1704 Locke (J.), These vague ideas, signified by the
terms, whatsoever and thin^. 1753 Hogarth Ana/. Beauty
7 So vague is taste, when it has no solid principles for its
foundation. 1791 Mary Wollstonecr. Rights Worn. v. 186
Though prudence of this sort be termed a virtue, morality
becomes vague when any part is supposed to rest on falsehood.
1818 Cruise Digest (ed. 2) VI. 172 The metes and
bounds of property would be vague and indeterminate. 1845
BuDD Dis. Liver 2 To the vague and unsatisfactory state
of our knowledge respecting them. ax88i A. Barratt
Phys. Metempiric (1883) 156 Beyond this we only get a
vague analogy.
b. Similarly of feelings or sensations.
1797 S. & Ht. Lee Cant. T. 1. 106 (He was] trembling
with a new and vague apprehension. 1837 W, \\ci\noCapt.
Bonmvilit HI. 356 Their movements not onlygive a vague
alarm, but,. will even indicate to the knowing trapper the
very quarter whence danger threatens. 1845 Budd Dis,
Liver 3S7 The i>atient*s illness begins with general disorder;
..vague pain"; in the belly, and sometimes with vomiting.
f868 Geo. Eliot F. Holt 15 The vague but strong feeling
that her son was a stranger to her. 188^ £. Clood Myths
I. J 6. Ill Man's sense of vague wonder in the picsence of
powers whose force he cannot measure.
4. ta» Kc-^cts, yas. yf,c. 11QP12 Tbaysall remane within
this realme. .and sail not vaig tbairfra. 1647 Aberd. Rec. in
Aberd. yml. N. 4- Q. (1908) I. 16/1 That all persones..heir
the word of God, and not vaig nor goe to the old toun. c 1657
Sir W. Mure Ps. cix. 10 Still valge, and sharke, and beg
about. Their bounds lay'd waist, they may. z8oa Levden
Compl. Scott. Gloss. 379 To vaig is in common use, as well
as stravaie.
y. 1600 Holland Ziiy xxiii. xlii. 503 To.. suppresse these
robbers that vague about our country. Ibid. xxxi. xxi. 785
They vagued to and fro in scattering wise up and downe the
countrey a foraging, c i6ao Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855)
121 Thou idle boy thus vagueing here and there. X678 Sir
0. Mackenzie Crim. Laws .Scot. 11. xxvi. § iv. (1609) 266 If
they were necessitated to vague up and down at all Courts,
upon alt occasions, 1766 Nichol Poems'i Thus through the
country I went valuing. 1786 in Old Ch. Life Scott. (1885)
320 The profanation of this holy day by idly vaguing
together.
t b. In fig. use. Obs.
1567 Djihsr Horace, Ep. Bj, Should I go« wryte at Randonne
tho, and vage abroade, and raue? 1596 Dalrymple
tr. Leslie's Hist. 5