vein
AI In plain words
Writing a short explanation…
Written by a house AI from the entry below, in your language. The entry itself is the source.
vein
- /veɪn/ US, UK
- /ven/ Scotland
- /vein/ Wales
Sounds like vain, vane (pane–pain merger) · Rhymes with -eɪn
Where it comes from
Etymology tree
Latin vēna
Old French veinebor.
Middle English veine
English vein
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).
noun veins · wayn
- A blood vessel that transports blood from the capillaries back to the heart. The nurse hovered her vein finder to locate the veins in the patient's body.
- The entrails of a shrimp.
- In leaves, a thickened portion of the leaf containing the vascular bundle.
- 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.
- 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.
- A topic of discussion; a train of association, thoughts, emotions, etc. in the same vein
- A style, tendency, or quality. The play is in a satirical vein.
- A fissure, cleft, or cavity, as in the earth or other substance. down to the veins of earth
Similar: vena
verb veins · veining · veined · wayn
- 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 […]
