Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A person who has not experienced sexual intercourse.
  • noun A female virgin. Used chiefly in historical contexts.
  • noun The Virgin Mary.
  • noun Zoology An animal that has not mated or has not been fertilized.
  • noun A person who is inexperienced in a given activity or field.
  • adjective Never having experienced sexual intercourse; chaste.
  • adjective Zoology Relating to or being a virgin.
  • adjective Inexperienced or about to gain first experience in a given activity or field.
  • adjective Unaltered or barely altered by human action, especially.
  • adjective Not traveled upon.
  • adjective Never having had trees removed or cut down.
  • adjective Never having been cultivated.
  • adjective Not processed or refined.
  • adjective Happening for the first time; initial.
  • adjective Obtained directly from the first pressing.
  • adjective Made with the ingredients of a cocktail but without alcohol.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A woman who has had no carnal knowledge of man; a maiden of inviolate chastity; a pure maid.
  • noun A man who has preserved his chastity.
  • noun One who professes perpetual virginity; especially, in the early church, one of a class or order of women who were vowed to lifelong continence.
  • noun The state of virginity.
  • noun A parthenogenetic insect, as an aphid; a female insect which lays eggs which hatch, though there has been no fecundation for some generations by the male.
  • noun Any female animal which has not had young, or has not copulated.
  • noun [capitalized] The zodiacal sign or the constellation Virgo. See Virgo.
  • Of or pertaining to a maid or virgin; being a virgin; befitting a virgin; chaste; pure; maidenly; indicating modesty.
  • Unsullied; undefiled: as, virgin snow; virgin minds.
  • Untouched; not meddled with; unused; untried; fresh; new; unalloyed: as, virgin soil.
  • In zoology, parthenogenetic, as an insect; of or pertaining to parthenogenesis: as, virgin reproduction. See agamogenesis.
  • To play the virgin; be or continue chaste: sometimes with indefinite it.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb obsolete To act the virgin; to be or keep chaste; -- followed by it. See it, 5.
  • adjective Being a virgin; chaste; of or pertaining to a virgin; becoming a virgin; maidenly; modest; indicating modesty.
  • adjective Pure; undefiled; unmixed; fresh; new
  • adjective Not yet pregnant; impregnant.
  • noun A woman who has had no carnal knowledge of man; a maid.
  • noun Archaic A person of the male sex who has not known sexual indulgence.
  • noun (Astron.) See Virgo.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any one of several species of gossamer-winged butterflies of the family Lycænidæ.
  • noun (Zoöl.) A female insect producing eggs from which young are hatched, though there has been no fecundation by a male; a parthenogenetic insect.
  • noun the Virgin Mary, the Mother of Jesus Christ.
  • noun (Bot.) a name given to several climbing plants of the genus Clematis, as Clematis Vitalba of Europe, and Clematis Virginiana of North America.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who has never had sexual intercourse, or sometimes, one who has never engaged in any sexual activity at all.
  • noun informal Preceded by a noun, a person who has never used or experienced what is denoted by the noun.
  • adjective In a state of virginity; chaste, not having had sexual intercourse.
  • adjective Of a physical object, untouched.
  • adjective Of olive oil, obtained by mechanical means, so that the oil is not altered.
  • adjective Of mixed drinks, not containing alcohol.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun (astrology) a person who is born while the sun is in Virgo
  • noun a person who has never had sex

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French virgine, from Latin virgō, virgin-.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Old French virgine, from Latin virginem (nominative: virgo).

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Examples

  • Foods: The term virgin evokes purity, cleanliness, white.

    O Antiphons Jennifer Gregory Miller 2008

  • The film stars Carell as the title virgin, who works at a large electronics store and is basically a loner.

    DVD Review: The 40-Year-Old Virgin (Blu-ray) 2008

  • Foods: The term virgin evokes purity, cleanliness, white.

    Archive 2008-12-01 Jessica 2008

  • The film stars Carell as the title virgin, who works at a large electronics store and is basically a loner.

    2008 October 2008

  • The word virgin was said about a thousand times, and every time she heard it, Celeste turned bright red.

    A-J Phoebe McPhee 2002

  • "Among mating animals, the term virgin is applied to the female who has not mated," he answered.

    Herland 1915

  • The term virgin in its mystical sense signifies a soul pure from admixture of matter.

    Dreams and Dream Stories Anna Bonus Kingsford 1867

  • The adoption of the term virgin was not a mistranslation: it was a judgment of the translators based on the texts which they had before them and the audience for which the translation was intended.

    VERBATIM: The Language Quarterly Vol XVIII No 2 1991

  • But not only didn't Isaiah, as we have seen, use the word virgin, which all by itself refutes Matthew's virgin birth of Jesus, but the very context in which Isaiah was speaking absolutely precludes the notion of such a prophecy by Isaiah.

    Vincent Bugliosi: Why Do I Doubt Both The Atheists And The Theists? Vincent Bugliosi 2011

  • But not only didn't Isaiah, as we have seen, use the word virgin, which all by itself refutes Matthew's virgin birth of Jesus, but the very context in which Isaiah was speaking absolutely precludes the notion of such a prophecy by Isaiah.

    Vincent Bugliosi: Why Do I Doubt Both The Atheists And The Theists? Vincent Bugliosi 2011

Comments

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  • Thinking of feta cheese made me think of Fatima and then Our Lady of Fatima and then The Blessed Virgin and hence...virgin. See Free Associate

    February 16, 2008

  • Wow. That's some free associating there, Treeseed! :-)

    February 17, 2008