sb. pl. [ad. L. vītālia, neut. pl. of vītālis, or directly f. VITAL a.]
1. Those parts or organs of the body, esp. the human body, essential to life, or upon which life depends; the vital parts.
Usually as a vague or general term, but sometimes applied specifically to the brain, heart, lungs and liver.
For the phr. stop my vitals, see STAP v. and STOP v. 9 c.
a. 1610. Healey, Cebes (1636), 134. Now hee … purgeth away the causes and nutriment of the maladie, and then corroborates the vitals.
1641. Tatham, Distracted State, IV. i. (1651), 24. I feel my vitals fail me.
1690. C. Nesse, O. & N. Test., I. 52. Like the wound in the heel, far from the vitals, the head or heart.
1708. Swift, Sacram. Tests, Wks. 1755, II. I. 125. If … you think a poultice made of our vitals will give it any ease, speak the word.
1760–72. H. Brooke, Fool of Qual. (1809), III. 117. The weapon has missed your vitals.
1791. Cowper, Odyss., IX. 347. Me, then, my courage prompted to approach The monster … And to transfix him where the vitals wrap The liver.
1861. Paley, Aeschylus (ed. 2), Choeph. 264, note. The notion in the mind of the speaker is that of a cold chill at the vitals.
1897. Mary Kingsley, W. Africa, 246. A miscellaneous collection of bits of broken iron pots and lumps of lead frisking among their vitals.
b. fig. or in fig. context.
1641. Milton, Reform., II. 64. Now heare how they [i.e., the prelates] strike at the very heart and vitals [of monarchy].
1671. Trenchfield, Cap Gray Hairs (1688), 32. The dainty Tooths of some corroding so far into their estates, as to reach the very vitals.
1719. W. Wood, Surv. Trade, 56. The truest Sign of our Vitals not being tainted, and that we are not wounded in any Noble Part, but go on increasing in Trade.
1790. Burke, Fr. Rev., 350. Such immense sums, drawn from the vitals of all France.
1802–12. in Bentham, Ration. Judic. Evid. (1827), V. 536. The very life and vitals of the cause lies in secreting the evidence.
1853. Merivale, Rom. Rep., i. (1867), 7. Tiberius … continued to brood over the plague-spot he had discovered in the vitals of his country.
1868. Farrar, Seekers, I. iii. (1875), 37. To have fastened upon the very vitals of the national existence.
2. transf. Parts or features essentially necessary to something; essential points, essentials.
1657. J. Watts, Vind. Ch. Eng., 30. So long as the vitals and fundamentals of faith and truth abide.
1657–8. in Burton’s Diary (1828), II. 433. If the vitals were preserved, I should not differ for the rest.
1689. Myst. Iniq., 9. Tho all English Protestants have ever been at an Accord in all the Essentials and Vitals of Religion.
1702. C. Mather, Magn. Chr., III. II. xxviii. (1852), 504. Of pernicious consequence to the very vitals of religion.
1887. Pall Mall G., 4 May, 11/1. When the Parnellite leaders approached the vitals of the issue.
b. The vital parts of a ship. Cf. VITAL a. 3 b.
1884. Pall Mall G., 13 Nov., 5/1. Riachuelo.… Speed 17 knots; 6,200 tons; 81/2 in. armour over vitals.
1894. C. N. Robinson, Brit. Fleet, 288. The armour … shielding the gun, the machinery, and ‘vitals’ of the vessel.
