Vigil
noun
1.
wakefulness maintained for any reason during the normal hours for sleeping.
2.
a watch or a period of watchful attention maintained at night or at other times:
The nurse kept her vigil at the bedside of the dying man.
3.
a period of wakefulness from inability to sleep.
4.
Ecclesiastical.
a devotional watching, or keeping awake, during the customary hours of sleep.
Sometimes, vigils. a nocturnal devotional exercise or service, especially on the eve before a church festival.
the eve, or day and night, before a church festival, especially an eve that is a fast.
noun
1.
a purposeful watch maintained, esp at night, to guard, observe, pray, etc
2.
the period of such a watch
3.
(RC Church, Church of England) the eve of certain major festivals, formerly observed as a night spent in prayer: often marked by fasting and abstinence and a special Mass and divine office
4.
a period of sleeplessness; insomnia
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