vitals

• IPA^(key): /ˈvaɪtəlz/

vitals pl (plural only)

1. (plural only) Those organs of the body that are essential for life.
2. (plural only, figuratively) Those parts of a system without which it cannot function.
3. (plural only, medicine) Vital signs.
4. (plural only, dated, euphemistic) The male genitals.
   • 1919, A.T. Murray, transl., The Odyssey (Loeb Classical Library Edition), →ISBN, page 371:

     ἐκ δὲ Μελάνθιον ἦγον ἀνὰ πρόθυρόν τε καὶ αὐλήν:
     τοῦ δ᾽ ἀπὸ μὲν ῥῖνάς τε καὶ οὔατα νηλέϊ χαλκῷ
     τάμνον, μήδεά τ᾽ ἐξέρυσαν, κυσὶν ὠμὰ δάσασθαι,
     χεῖράς τ᾽ ἠδὲ πόδας κόπτον κεκοτηότι θυμῷ.

     Then forth they led Melanthius through the doorway and the court, and cut off his nostrils and his ears with the pitiless bronze, and drew out his vitals for the dogs to eat raw, and cut off his hands and his feet in their furious wrath.

• 1827, Ann Hasseltine Judson, An account of the American Baptist mission to the Burman empire:

  they were ripped open from the lowest to the highest extremity of the stomach, and their vitals and part of their bowels were hanging out

• 2003 David R Woodward - Trial by Friendship: Anglo-American Relations, 1917-1918

  This final victory can only be had by reaching the vitals of Germany and by destroying her armed forces.

• 1991, Suzy Szasz, Living With It: Why You Don't Have to Be Healthy to Be Happy:

  At least once an hour a nurse came into the room, either to check on me or my roommate, or to take vitals

• gnaw someone's vitals
• stap my vitals

• vistal

vitals

1. plural of vital