1. A hollow utensil, such as a cup, vase, or pitcher, used as a container, especially for liquids.
2. 1. Nautical. A craft, especially one larger than a rowboat, designed to navigate on water.
   2. An airship.
3. Anatomy. A duct, canal, or other tube that contains or conveys a body fluid: a blood vessel.
4. Botany. One of the tubular conductive structures of xylem, consisting of dead cylindrical cells that are attached end to end and connected by perforations. They are found in nearly all flowering plants.
5. A person seen as the agent or embodiment, as of a quality: a vessel of mercy.

[Middle English, from Old French, from Late Latin vāscellum, diminutive of Latin vāsculum, diminutive of vās, vessel.]

The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition Copyright © 2007, 2000 by Houghton Mifflin Company. Updated in 2009. Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.