Also 7 vage. [a. F. vague (13th c.) or ad. L. vag-us wandering, inconstant, uncertain, etc. (hence also It., Sp., Pg. vago).]
1. Of statements, etc.: Couched in general or indefinite terms; not definitely or precisely expressed; deficient in details or particulars.
1548. Vicary, Anat. (1888), 15. Likewise a Chirurgion must take heede that he deceiue no man with his vague promises.
a. 1661. Fuller, Worthies, Durham, I. (1662), 298. With subtilty not light, slight, vage as air, But such as Truth doth crown.
1750. Johnson, Rambler, No. 76, ¶ 8. Men often extenuate their own guilt, only by vague and general charges upon others.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 521. Their answers, vague, And all at random.
1844. Thirlwall, Greece, VIII. 179. He remained inflexible, covering his refusal with the vague pretext, ‘that circumstances were not in his power.’
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., ix. II. 400. He wanted … to have, not vague professions of good will, but distinct invitations and promises of support.
1884. Law 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. Und., To Rdr. Vague and insignificant forms of speech, and abuse of language, have so long passed for mysteries 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), I. III. 306. It was conceived in vague and general terms.
1796. Kirwan, Elem. Min. (ed. 2), I. Pref. p. xi. Its descriptive language was … arbitrary, vague and ambiguous.
1813. J. Thomson, Lect. Inflam., 502. By an indiscriminate use of vague terms.
1849. Macaulay, Hist. Eng., vi. II. 152. These vague phrases were not likely to quiet the perturbed mind of the minister.
1870. Farrar, Fam. Speech, iii. (1873), 87. But the name Chaldee is so vague and misleading that I have purposely excluded it.
1900. Edmond Holmes, What is Poetry? 79. Vague words, then, stir emotion; exact terms repress it. The former are as congenial to poetry as the latter are repugnant.
fig. 1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, 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 definiteness or precision: indefinite, indistinct.
1690. Locke, Hum. Und., IV. vii. § 4. The Perception of being, or not being, belongs no more to these vague Ideas, signify’d by the Terms Whatsoever and Thing, than it does to any other Ideas.
1753. Hogarth, Anal. Beauty, 7. So vague is taste, when it has no solid principles for its foundation.
1792. Mary Wollstonecr., Rights Wom., 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.
a. 1881. 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., I. 106. [He was] trembling with a new and vague apprehension.
1837. W. Irving, Capt. Bonneville, III. 256. Their movements not only give a vague alarm, but … will even indicate to the knowing trapper the very quarter whence danger threatens.
1845. Budd, Dis. Liver, 387. The patient’s illness begins with general disorder;… vague pains in the belly, and sometimes with vomiting.
1868. Geo. Eliot, F. Holt, 15. The vague but strong feeling that her son was a stranger to her.
1885. E. Clodd, Myths, I. § 6. 111. Man’s sense of vague wonder in the presence of powers whose force he cannot measure.
4. † a. Vague acid (see quots.). Obs.
1741. P. Shaw, trans. Boerhaave’s Chem. (ed. 2), I. 112. Of the Vague Acid. The vague volatile liquid acid, found perhaps every where in mines.
1753. Chambers’ Cycl., Suppl., Vague Acid, a term much used by the modern chemists, and signifying a certain volatile fluid salt or acid, supposed to be found every where in mines, and in combination with different other substances, to form many of the ordinary compound fossils.
1764. Phil. Trans., LIV. 45. A Belemnite, whose laminæ were in a manner dissected and laid open by the vague acid,… which everywhere pervades the earth, destroying some bodies, and forming others.
b. Bot. (See quot.)
1842. A. Gray, Struct. Bot., viii. (1880), 313. Vague, when the radicle bears no evident or uniform relation of the kind to the pericarp.
5. Lacking physical definiteness of form or outline; indistinctly seen or perceived; formless, obscure, shadowy.
1822. B. W. Proctor, Flood of Thessaly, I. 3. Chaos, touched with light and form, Lost its vague being.
1849. Mrs. Somerville, Connex. Phys. Sci., 433. These are in every state of condensation, from a vague film hardly to be discerned to such as have actually arrived at a solid nucleus of stars.
1879. Huxley, Hume, iv. 96. We travel through countries where every feature of the scenery is vague.
6. Of persons, the mind, etc.: Unable to think with clearness or precision; indefinite or inexact in thought or statement.
1806–20. Wordsw., River Duddon, xxvi. Random cares and truant joys, That shield from mischief and preserve from stains Vague minds, while men are growing out of boys.
1827. Carlyle, Misc. (1840), I. 17. Richter has … an imagination vague, sombre, splendid, or appalling.
1847. Helps, Friends in C., I. viii. 142. The sharp practice of the world drives some logic into the most vague of men: women are not so schooled.
b. poet. Of the eyes: Devoid of expression. rare.
1820. Keats, St. Agnes, viii. She danc’d along with vague, regardless eyes.
7. † a. ? Vagrant, vagabond. Obs. rare.
a. 1627. Sir J. Hayward, Edw. VI. (1630), 63. The Lord Gray encouraged his men to set sharpely upon the vague villaines, good neither to liue peaceably nor to fight.
b. Of the Egyptian month or year: Beginning at varying seasons; moveable, shifting.
a. 1656. Ussher, Ann. (1658), 762. The beginnings of these years being taken from the first of the vage or moveable moneth Thoth of the Egyptians.
1860. R. S. Poole, in Smith’s Dict. Bible, I. 506/1. (Egypt), The Vague Year contained 365 days without any additional fraction, and therefore passed through all the seasons in about 1500 years.
1876. Encycl. Brit., IV. 665. This [Egyptian] year is called vague, by reason of its commencing sometimes at one season of the year, and sometimes at another.
8. As adv. Vaguely; indistinctly.
1864. Longf., Wind over Chimney, ix. The night-wind drear Clamours louder, wilder, vaguer.
b. In combs., as vague-hovering, -menacing, -sailing, -shining, etc.
1856. R. A. Vaughan, Mystics (1860), I. 238. In this wild Universe of ours, storming-in, vague-menacing, it is enough if you shall find … existence.
1871. J. Hay, Pike County Ball. (1880), 90. Vague-hovering o’er her form … A warmer and a dearer charm. Ibid., 95. Vague-sailing, where the feathery clouds Fleck white the tranquil skies.
1879. Dowden, Southey, vii. 196. Will-o’-the-wisp, vague-shining theories that beguile night wanderers.
9. absol. as sb., esp. the vague, the vague aspect or consideration of things. In the vague, in a vague or indefinite state or condition, uncertain; without entering into details or particulars, in general.
1851. Carlyle, Sterling, I. xii. John Mill … spoke of him … as a gifted amiable being,… in danger of dissipating himself into the vague.
1856. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., II. 280. My plans are still in the vague; I feel no haste to ‘see my way.’
1881. Masson, De Quincey, 196. The meaning is all but lost in a mere vague of music.
1882. Bain, J. S. Mill, i. 13. All this is completely in the vague.
1894. Month, Oct., 207. We must take them rather in the vague.
b. The vague or uncertain future. rare.
1865. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett., III. 260. Dr. B. is postponed into the vague.
c. The vague or undefined expanse of something.
1870. Lowell, Study Wind., 90. The great Genoese did not draw that first star-guided furrow across the vague of waters.
1875. Ruskin, Lect. Art, vi. 169. The shadows lost or disregarded in the vague of space.
