Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- adjective Of, relating to, or occurring in the spring.
- adjective Characteristic of or resembling spring.
- adjective Fresh and young; youthful.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun The trade-name of diethylmalonvlurea, a colorless, crystalline powder, used in medicine as a soporific.
- Of or pertaining to the spring; belonging to the spring; appearing in spring: as, vernal bloom.
- Of or belonging to youth, the springtime of life.
- In botany, appearing in spring: as, vernal flowers.
- Done or accomplished in spring: as, the vernal migration or molt of birds
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- adjective Of or pertaining to the spring; appearing in the spring.
- adjective Fig.: Belonging to youth, the spring of life.
- adjective (Astron.) the point of time in each year when the sun crosses the equator when proceeding northward, about March 21, when day and night are of approximately equal duration. The beginning of the Spring season.
- adjective (Bot.) a low, soft grass (
Anthoxanthum odoratum ), producing in the spring narrow spikelike panicles, and noted for the delicious fragrance which it gives to new-mown hay; -- also calledsweet vernal grass . SeeIllust. in Appendix. - adjective (Astron.) the signs, Aries, Taurus, and Gemini, in which the sun appears between the vernal equinox and summer solstice.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- adjective
Young ;fresh . - adjective Pertaining to
spring .
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- adjective suggestive of youth; vigorous and fresh
- adjective of or characteristic of or occurring in spring
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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The term vernal pool originally referred only to small, intermittently filled wetlands found in the Mediterranean-type climate of the western United States.
Vernal pool 2010
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Historically, March 21 is known as the vernal equinox -- an equal balance of light and dark.
Kari Henley: What Seeds Of Change Are You Planting This Spring? Kari Henley 2011
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Historically, March 21 is known as the vernal equinox -- an equal balance of light and dark.
Kari Henley: What Seeds Of Change Are You Planting This Spring? Kari Henley 2011
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I have half filled this sheet, which capability I attribute, chiefly, to the sweet fields that are now smiling in vernal beauty before me.
Memoirs, Correspondence and Poetical Remains of Jane Taylor 1832
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The sun will cross precisely over the equator at 7: 44 this morning, a time known as the vernal or spring equinox.
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Although generally isolated, they are sometimes connected to each other by small drainages known as vernal swales.
Vernal pool 2010
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The ephemerally flooded depressions are called vernal pools.
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This happens twice a year, and the times when the sun passes the equator are called the vernal or spring equinox and the autumnal equinox respectively.
Kepler Bryant, Walter W 1920
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In the northern hemisphere the March equinox (or "first point of Aries") is called the vernal equinox; the September equinox ( "first point of Libra"), the autumnal.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume 3: Brownson-Clairvaux 1840-1916 1913
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When the night and day are equal in spring, the point which the sun occupies on the heavens is termed the vernal equinox.
Great Astronomers 1876
chained_bear commented on the word vernal
Why vernal and autumnal, but wintry and summery?
October 18, 2007
sionnach commented on the word vernal
Well, there is the word estival. And probably something like hibernal as well.
October 18, 2007
seanahan commented on the word vernal
According to Wikipedia, fall came about later, probably due to "fall of the leaves". Vernal is Latin, and I'm not sure at what point "spring" took over.
October 18, 2007
victoriapl commented on the word vernal
"It was the end of March, an unusually warm and beautiful day in early spring; though all the days now seemed lovely and warm, bathed as they were in the vernal glow of a dying century."
The Glimmering by Elizabeth Hand
December 3, 2007