vessel

Etymology

From Middle English vessel, vessell, from Old French vaissel (compare modern French vaisseau), from Late Latin vāscellum, diminutive of vāsculum, diminutive of vās (“vase, vessel”).

noun

1. (nautical) Any craft designed for transportation on water, such as a ship or boat.
   He saw now clearly that the sole crew of the vessel was these two dead men, and though he could not see their faces, he saw by their outstretched hands, which were all of ragged flesh, that they had been subjected to some strange exceptional process of decay. 1905, H. G. Wells, The Empire of the Ants
   Conditions were horrendous aboard most British naval vessels at the time. Scurvy and other diseases ran rampant, killing more seamen each year than all other causes combined, including combat. 2012-03, William E. Carter, Merri Sue Carter, “The British Longitude Act Reconsidered”, in American Scientist, volume 100, number 2, page 87
2. A craft designed for transportation through air or space.
   Driven from their home system by the geth nearly three centuries ago, most quarians now live aboard the Migrant Fleet, a flotilla of fifty thousand vessels ranging in size from passenger shuttles to mobile space stations. 2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →OCLC, PC, scene: Quarians Codex entry
3. (uncountable, obsolete or dialectal) Dishes and cutlery collectively, especially if made of precious metals.
   All his Vessell was of golde and siluer, pottis, basons, ewers, dysshes, flagons, barels, cuppes, and all other thyngis. 1523, John Bourchier, translated by Jean Froissart, Here begynneth the first volum of sir Iohan Froyssart : of the cronycles of Englande, Fraunce, Spayne, Portyngale, Scotlande, Bretayne, Flauders: and other places adioynynge.
4. A container of liquid or other substance, such as a glass, goblet, cup, bottle, bowl, or pitcher.
5. A person as a container of qualities or feelings.
   A teacher should be a vessel of knowledge.
   I am a vessel that’s empty and useless / I am a bad seed that fell by the way. 1975, Dolly Parton, The Seeker lyrics
6. (biology) A tube or canal that carries fluid in an animal or plant.
   Blood and lymph vessels are found in humans; xylem and phloem vessels are found in plants.

verb

1. (transitive) To put into a vessel.
   1577, William Harrison, The Description of England in Holinshed’s Chronicles, Volume 1, Book 3, Chapter 12 “Of venemous beastes &c.,” Our hony alſo is taken and reputed to be the beſt bycauſe it is harder, better wrought & clenlyer veſſelled vp, thẽ that which cõmeth from beyond the ſea, where they ſtampe and ſtraine their combes, Bées, & young Blow|inges altogither into the ſtuffe, as I haue béene informed.
   1627, Francis Bacon, Sylva Sylvarum: or, A Naturall Historie, London: W. Lee, Cent. VI, section 529, p. 137, The fourth Rule ſhall be, to marke what Herbs, ſome Earths doe put fourth of themſelves; And to take that Earth, and to Pot it, or to Veſſell it; And in that to ſet the Seed you would change […]
   Man had at the firſt, and ſo have all ſouls before their entrance into the body, an explicite methodicall knowledge, but they are no ſooner veſſel’d, but that liberty is loſt, and nothing remains but a vaſt confuſed notion of the creature […] 1662, John Heydon, The Harmony of the World, London: Robert Horn, Epistle Dedicatory
   [Samuel 'Sam' Oliver:] Alright (or: All right), so the Devil didn't say that the winner was the one who vesseled (or: vesselled) him, just the one who sends him back to hell. 2009, Reaper (TV series), 2nd season, episode known as The Home Stretch