A hollow utensil, such as a cup, vase, or pitcher, used as a container, especially for liquids, Botany One of the tubular water-conducting structures of xylem, consisting of a series of vessel elements attached end to end and connected by perforations. Vessels are found in nearly all flowering plants, A utensil for holding liquors and other things, as a cask, a barrel, a bottle, a kettle, a pot, a cup, or a dish, verb_ obsolete, transitive To put into a vessel