OXFORD DICTIONARY
, adj. & n.
--adj.
1 chaste, pure.
2 of or relating to the Roman goddess Vesta.
--n.
1 a chaste woman, esp. a nun.
2 Rom. Antiq. a vestal virgin.
vestal virgin Rom. Antiq. a virgin consecrated to Vesta and vowed to chastity, who shared the charge of maintaining the sacred fire burning on the goddess's altar.
ME f. L vestalis (adj. & n.) (as VESTA)
THESAURUS
Platonic, abstinent, bachelor girl, celibate, continent, feme sole, intact, lone woman, maid, maiden, maiden lady, maidenly, old maid, single girl, spinster, spinstress,
vestal virgin, virgin, virginal
ROGET THESAURUS
Purity
N
purity, decency, decorum, delicacy, continence, chastity, honesty, virtue, modesty, shame, pudicity, pucelage, virginity,
vestal, virgin, Joseph, Hippolytus, Lucretia, Diana, prude, pure, undefiled, modest, delicate, decent, decorous, virginibus puerisque, simon-pure, chaste, continent, virtuous, honest, Platonic, virgin, unsullied, cherry, as chaste as unsunn'd snow, a soul as white as heaven, 'tis Chastity, my brother, Chastity, to the pure all things are pure.