[They drank] out of these noble vessels. --Chaucer.
2. A general name for any hollow structure made to float upon
the water for purposes of navigation; especially, one that
is larger than a common rowboat; as, a war vessel; a
passenger vessel.
[He] began to build a vessel of huge bulk. --Milton.
3. Fig.: A person regarded as receiving or containing
something; esp. (Script.), one into whom something is
conceived as poured, or in whom something is stored for
use; as, vessels of wrath or mercy.
He is a chosen vessel unto me. --Acts ix. 15.
[The serpent] fit vessel, fittest imp of fraud, in
whom To enter. --Milton.
4. (Anat.) Any tube or canal in which the blood or other
fluids are contained, secreted, or circulated, as the
arteries, veins, lymphatics, etc.
5. (Bot.) A continuous tube formed from superposed large
cylindrical or prismatic cells (trache[ae]), which have
lost their intervening partitions, and are usually marked
with dots, pits, rings, or spirals by internal deposition
of secondary membranes; a duct.
{Acoustic vessels}. See under {Acoustic}.
{Weaker vessel}, a woman; -- now applied humorously. ``Giving
honor unto the wife, as unto the weaker vessel.'' --1
Peter iii. 7. ``You are the weaker vessel.'' --Shak.
2. [F. mortier, fr. L. mortarium mortar (for trituarating).]
(Mil.) A short piece of ordnance, used for throwing bombs,
carcasses, shells, etc., at high angles of elevation, as
45[deg], and even higher; -- so named from its resemblance
in shape to the utensil above described.
{Mortar bed} (Mil.), a framework of wood and iron, suitably
hollowed out to receive the breech and trunnions of a
mortar.
{Mortar boat} or {vessel} (Naut.), a boat strongly built and
adapted to carrying a mortar or mortars for bombarding; a
bomb ketch.
{Mortar piece}, a mortar. [Obs.] --Shak.
2. Originally, a vessel employed by government to convey
dispatches or mails; hence, a vessel employed in conveying
dispatches, mails, passengers, and goods, and having fixed
days of sailing; a mail boat.
{Packet boat}, {ship}, or {vessel}. See {Packet}, n., 2.
{Packet day}, the day for mailing letters to go by packet; or
the sailing day.
{Packet note} or {post}. See under {Paper}.