vicissitude

[Latin vici itudo = change, from vic is change.] 1. Regular change or succe ion from one thing to another. "This succe ion of things upon the earth is the result of the vici itude of seasons." - Woodward . 2. A change or pa ing from one state or condition to another; change, mutation, revolution. "Through all the vici itudes of fortune."- Macaulay : Hist. Eng., ch. xxv. vi-çis-si-tū-din-ar-ý, adj . [Latin vici itudo , gen it. vici itudin ( is ) = change; English adj. suff. -ary.] Subject to vici itudes or changes; characterized by or exhibiting vici itudes. "The days of man [are] vici itudinary, as though he had as many good days as ill:-Donne: Devotions, p. 313. vi-çis-si-tū-din-ous, a . [VICISSITUDINARY.] Full of vici itudes or changes; characterized by or subject to a succe ion of changes. vi-çis-sỹ, s. [See compound.] vici y-duck, s. Ornith.: A bird described by Simmonds as a "West-Indian water-fowl, smaller than the European, and affording excellent food." It is probably the Widow-duck (q. v.). vi-con-ti-ěl, adj. [Mid. English vicounte =viscount (q. v.).] Old English Law: Pertaining to the sheriff or vicount. vicontiel-rents, s. pl. Old English Law : Writs triable in the county or sheriffs' court. *vi-coun-ti-ěl, a . [VICONTIEL.] vic-tim, s . [Fr. victime , from Latin victim a , a word of doubtful origin, prob. from victus (pa. par. of vinco to conquer) = the conquered one.] 1. A living creature sacrificed to some deity or in the performance of some religious rite; usually some beast slain in sacrifice, but the practice of immolating human beings has also been followed by many nations. "The chief part of the sacrifice was the victim , concern ing which it may be observed in the first place that it was required to be whole, perfect and sound in all its members, without spot or blemish." -Potter : Antiq. Greece, bk. ii., ch. iv. 2. A person or thing destroyed or injured in some manner by some casualty. "Another theater wrapped in flames, together with the sacrifice of scores, perhaps of hundreds of victims doomed to die the most dreadful death imaginable."- London Daily Telegraph . 3. A person or thing sacrificed in the pursuit of an object; a person or thing destroyed or injured from application to some object; as, a victim to avarice, a victim to jealousy. 4. A living being sacrificed by or suffering severe injury from another. 5. Hence, one who is cheated or duped; a dupe, a gull. "To control the credulity of the victims of Hero dot us." London Globe. vic'-tim-āte, v . t . [Lat. victim at us , pa. par. of victimo =to sacrifice.] To sacrifice; to make a victim of; to immolate. vic-tim-ize, vic-tim-işe, v . t . [Eng. victim ; -ize .] To make a victim of; especially, to make the victim of a swindle or fraud; to dupe, to swindle, to defraud, to cheat. "She victimized large numbers of tradesmen in Edinburgh."- St . James's Gazette, March 2, 1888.