visit

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Visited; p. pr. & vb. n. Visiting. ] [ F. visiter, L. visitare, fr. visere to go to see, to visit, fr. videre, visum to see. See Vision. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

1. To go or come to see, as for the purpose of friendship, business, curiosity, etc.; to attend; to call upon; as, the physician visits his patient. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Specifically: To go or come to see for inspection, examination, correction of abuses, etc.; to examine, to inspect; as, a bishop visits his diocese; a superintendent visits persons or works under his charge. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. (Script.) To come to for the purpose of chastising, rewarding, comforting; to come upon with reward or retribution; to appear before or judge; as, to visit in mercy; to visit one in wrath. [ 1913 Webster ]

[ God ] hath visited and redeemed his people. Like i. 68. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. To make a visit or visits; to maintain visiting relations; to practice calling on others. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Liable or subject to be visited or inspected. “All hospitals built since the Reformation are visitable by the king or lord chancellor.” Ayliffe. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. Visiting. Wordsworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. visitans, -antis; p. pr.: cf. F. visitant. ] One who visits; a guest; a visitor. [ 1913 Webster ]

When the visitant comes again, he is no more a stranger. South. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ L. visitatio: cf. F. visitation. ] 1. The act of visiting, or the state of being visited; access for inspection or examination. [ 1913 Webster ]

Nothing but peace and gentle visitation. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Specifically: The act of a superior or superintending officer who, in the discharge of his office, visits a corporation, college, etc., to examine into the manner in which it is conducted, and see that its laws and regulations are duly observed and executed; as, the visitation of a diocese by a bishop. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. The object of a visit. [ Obs. ] “O flowers, . . . my early visitation and my last.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Internat. Law) The act of a naval commander who visits, or enters on board, a vessel belonging to another nation, for the purpose of ascertaining her character and object, but without claiming or exercising a right of searching the vessel. It is, however, usually coupled with the right of search (see under Search), visitation being used for the purpose of search. [ 1913 Webster ]

5. Special dispensation; communication of divine favor and goodness, or, more usually, of divine wrath and vengeance; retributive calamity; retribution; judgment. [ 1913 Webster ]

What will ye do in the day of visitation? Isa. x. 3. [ 1913 Webster ]

6. (Eccl.) A festival in honor of the visit of the Virgin Mary to Elisabeth, mother of John the Baptist, celebrated on the second of July. [ 1913 Webster ]

The Order of the Visitation of Our Lady (R. C. Ch.), a religious community of nuns, founded at Annecy, in Savoy, in 1610, and in 1808 established in the United States. In America these nuns are devoted to the education of girls. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ Cf. LL. visitator a bishop temporarily put in place of another. ] Of or pertaining to visitation, or a judicial visitor or superintendent; visitorial. [ 1913 Webster ]

An archdeacon has visitatorial power. Ayliffe. [ 1913 Webster ]

The queen, however, still had over the church a visitatorial power of vast and undefined extent. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. See Visit, n. ] A light cape or short cloak of silk or lace worn by women in summer. [ 1913 Webster ]