a. (and sb.). Also 5 viryle, 6 vyryll, 6–8 viril (7 -ill). [a. OF. viril or ad. L. virīlis, f. vir man: see -ILE. So F., Sp., Pg. viril, It. virile.]
1. Of, belonging to, or characteristic of a man; manly, masculine; marked by strength or force.
a. Of things, qualities, etc.
1490. Caxton, Eneydos, ix. 36. O the fortytude viryle of wymmen, or loos & pryce of chastyte femynyne.
1604. T. Wright, Passions, Clymact. Years, 3. The next clymactericall yeere in them of solide and virile constitution is an 100.
1651. N. Bacon, Disc. Govt. Eng., II. iii. (1739), 17. And yet the power of this grew as virile and Royal, as it would acknowledge no Peer but the Parliament.
1679. J. Goodman, Penit. Pard., III. ii. (1713), 292. There is a virile state of vertue attainable when duty is turned into nature.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v., The Virile Age … is the Strength and Vigour of a Man’s Age, viz. from thirty to forty-five Years.
1822. T. Taylor, Apuleius, VIII. 175. Stammering words of an uncertain meaning, she breathed out her virile soul.
1858. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt. Part., II. lxviii. 7. It was an act not reconcileable with virile sense, on the part of either the proposers or the accepters.
1875. G. Macdonald, Malcolm, II. xv. 199. She punished her husband for the virile claim to greater freedom.
absol. 1876. Stedman, Victorian Poets (1887), 407. Only the virile and heroic can fully satisfy her own nature and master it for good or evil.
b. Of dress: Denoting the attainment of man’s estate; distinctively belonging to men in contrast to youths (or women).
1603. Holland, Plutarch’s Mor., 51. Having put on your virile robe and growen to mans estate.
1631. Brathwait, Eng. Gentlew. (1641), 340. One of this ranke … forbore not to unwoman herselfe, by assuming not onely a virile habit, but a virago’s heart.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Robe, At Rome, they gave the Name Virile Robe, Toga Virilis, to a plain kind of Gown which their Youth assumed when arrived at Puberty.
1761. Acc. of Books, in Ann. Reg., 298/2. Girls wore it [i.e., the prætexta] till they were married, and youths till they took the viril robe.
1848. Thackeray, Van. Fair, xliv. The assumption of the virile jacket and pantaloons.
2. Of persons: a. Full of masculine energy or strength; not weak or effeminate.
1512. Helyas, in Thoms, Prose Rom. (1828), III. 51. He semed almost a man viril in his force.
1880. Scribner’s Mag., May, 124/1. His instrument broke for want of a firm and even hand to use it—a virile, devoted master to prolong the strain.
1899. Hosmer, Anglo-Sax. Freedom, 319. All had … been disciplined and made strongly virile by that priceless polity … which had been inherited from Anglo-Saxon ancestors.
1893. J. Strong, New Era, 102. The more virile a man is the more positive are his defects.
† b. Of a woman: Nubile. Obs.–1
1648. Hexham, II. Manbaer,… a maide that is Mariageable or ripe for a Husband, or Virill.
c. Of sex: Male.
1697. Evelyn, Numism., viii. 287. A Treatise of Illustrious Women showing how far they surpass the Virile Sex in all sorts even of Martial undertakings and Affairs.
d. absol. as sb. A virile person.
1903. Critic, XLIII. 374/1. It is the fashion of the ‘viriles’—to coin a word—to stigmatize the poetry … as ‘decadent.’
3. Virile member (or yard), the male organ of generation.
1541. R. Copland, Guydon’s Quest. Chirurg., K j. It is the yerde vyryll that is the cultyuer and labourer of the felde of mankynde.
1607. Topsell, Four-f. Beasts, 89. But it is good to leaue as many of the vaines and nerues of the virile member vntouched and whole as may be.
1610. Holland, Camden’s Brit., I. 135. Frico, whose image they devise and pourtray with a great viril member.
1728. Chambers, Cycl., s.v. Penis, The Member, or virile Member,… one of the principal Organs of Generation in the Male Kind.
1856. Mayne, Expos. Lex., 672/1.
Hence Virileness, ‘manhood, manliness.’
1727. Bailey (vol. II.).
