vigil: Meaning and Definition of

vig•il

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.
1. a devotional watching, or keeping awake, during the customary hours of sleep.
2. Sometimes,vigils.a nocturnal devotional exercise or service, esp. on the eve before a church festival.
3. the eve, or day and night, before a church festival, esp. an eve that is a fast.