Meaning

(dated) A bottle or other vessel for containing a liquid; originally any such vessel, especially one for holding a beverage; now (specifically), a small, narrow glass bottle with a cap used to hold liquid chemicals, medicines, etc..

Definitions by Sense

1. (dated) A bottle or other vessel for containing a liquid; originally any such vessel, especially one for holding a beverage; now (specifically), a small, narrow glass bottle with a cap used to hold liquid chemicals, medicines, etc.
2. (transitive) To keep or put (something, especially a liquid) in, or as if in, a phial.

Example Sentences

VVo to you that are rich in Sion, and haue confidence in the mountaine of Samaria: […] That drinke vvine in phials, and are annoynted vvith the beſt oyntment: and they ſuffred nothing vpon the contrition of Ioſeph.

And when he had taken the booke, the foure Beaſts, and foure and twenty Elders fel down before the Lambe, hauing euery one of them harps, and golden vials full of odours, which are the prayers of Saints.

AA Is a glaſs phial filled vvith mercury to the ſuperficies DD, or thereabout.

And I heard a great voyce out of the Temple, ſaying to the ſeven Angels, Goe your wayes, and powre out the vials of the wrath of God vpõ the earth.

You must open the middle drawer of my toilet-table and take out a little phial and a little glass you will find there,—quick! […] He held out the tiny glass, and I half filled it from the water bottle on the wash-stand. / “That will do:⁠—now wet the lip of the phial.” / I did so: he measured twelve drops of a crimson liquid, and presented it to Mason. / “Drink, Richard: it will give you the heart you lack, for an hour or so.”

Thou still, upon the broad vine-sheltered path, / Mayst wait the turning of the phials of wrath / For certain years, for certain months and days.

In testimony of the affection of the American people, of their confidence in your [Marie Curie's] scientific work, and of their earnest wish that your genius and energy may receive all encouragement to carry forward your efforts for the advance of science and conquest of disease, I have been commissioned to present to you this little phial of radium.

He sat musing for a little with the phial in his hand, looking at the clear liquid within.

Word Forms

• phials
• phialing
• phialling
• phialed
• phialled

Synonyms for phial

Related Words

When Should You Use Phial?

Use phial when its meaning, tone and grammar fit the full sentence. A synonym is not always a direct replacement.

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