Also 5 vyndi-, vyndycacion. [a. OF. (now F. dial.) vindication vengeance, or ad. L. vindicātio action of claiming, defending, punishing, etc., f. vindicāre: see prec. Cf. Sp. vindicacion, Pg. -ação, F. vendication, It. vendicazione.]
† 1. a. The action of avenging or revenging. Obs.
1484. Caxton, Fables of Æsop, I. xvi. An asse … smote hym [the lion] in the forhede with his feete by maner of vyndycacion. Ibid. (1490), Eneydos, xxii. 83. [She] pursued hym at alle houres, in alle places, for to distroye hym, in makynge vyndicacion of the deth of his sayd moder.
1658. Phillips.
1690. Norris, Beatitudes (1694), 77. As to private Vindication of Injuries, that which we more especially call Revenge, this I shall readily allow to be utterly unlawful.
† b. Retribution, punishment. Obs.–1
1647. May, Hist. Parl., I. ii. 17. Things carried so far on in a wrong way must needs … require a vindication so sharpe and smarting, as that the nation would groan under it.
† 2. Deliverance; emancipation. Obs.–1
1613. Sir A. Sherley, Trav. Persia, 7. So abhorred a neighbour, from whom their vindication, into liberty, must bee maintained by their own constancy.
3. The action of vindicating or defending against censure, calumny, etc.; justification by proof or explanation.
1647. Clarendon, Hist. Reb., I. § 1. So the Memory of those … may not lose the recompense due to their Virtue, but … may find a vindication in a better age. Ibid., X. § 85. The soldiers publish’d a Vindication, as they call’d it, of their Proceedings and Resolutions.
1669. Gale, Crt. Gentiles, To Rdr. The vindication of the Jewish and Christian Religion, against the Gentile Philosophers.
1705. Addison, Italy (1733), 33. Pere Mabillon is now engaged in the Vindication of this Tear, which a learned Ecclesiastic … would have suppressed, as a false and ridiculous Relick.
1769. Junius Lett., ix. (1788), 65. The author of the vindication of your conduct … writes from his own mere motion.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 299. Leave the vindication of your character to your children.
1837. Lytton, E. Maltrav., I. xi. He enriched Mrs. Jones for life, in gratitude for her vindication of his lost and early love.
1870. Dickens, E. Drood, vii. He begged to thank Miss Landless for her vindication of his character.
b. In the phr. in vindication of.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 266. It will not ill become mee, sure, to add a word or two in vindication of Sir Edward Coke.
a. 1667. Cowley, Ess., Obscurity. This seems a strange Sentence,… and looks as if it were in vindication of the men of business.
1709. Steele, Tatler, No. 39, ¶ 3. I can add other circumstances in Vindication of the Account of this Learned Body.
1752. Bp. Thomas, in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm., App. I. 307. Then Lord Sandwich spoke in Vindication of the Measure.
1845. M’Culloch, Taxation, I. iv. (1852), 114. It has been said, in vindication of this inequality, that the properties are of a different description.
c. A justifying fact or circumstance.
1846. Trench, Mirac., Introd. 45. The position which it has won … is itself its vindication now.
1848. L. Hunt, Jar of Honey, x. 134. The great vindication of evil is, we could not manifest so much virtue without it.
1856. Kane, Arct. Expl., II. xvii. 179. It must … stand … as my vindication for the step, in case we should be overtaken by disaster.
4. The action of asserting or maintaining.
1871. R. W. Dale, Commandm., vi. 166. The Commandment ‘Thou shalt not kill,’ is a Divine vindication of the greatness and sanctity of man.
1874. Green, Short Hist., viii. § 3. 490. The bulk of the members supported Eliot in his last vindication of English liberty.
5. Roman Law. (See quots.)
1880. Muirhead, Gaius, II. § 194. A legacy by vindication is so called because the thing bequeathed becomes the property of the legatee in quiritarian right the moment the inheritance has been entered upon. Ibid., IV. § 5. Actions in rem are called vindications; while those in which we contend that something ought to be given to or done for us are called condictions.
