4. (Bot.) Having the power or habit of turning or twining; as, the
voluble stem of hop plants.
Voluble stem (Bot.), a stem that climbs by winding, or twining, round
another body.
— Vol"u*ble*ness, n. — Vol"u*bly, adv.
Vol"ume (?), n. [F., from L. volumen a roll of writing, a book, volume,
from volvere, volutum, to roll. See Voluble.] 1. A roll; a scroll; a
written document rolled up for keeping or for use, after the manner of
the ancients. [Obs.]
The papyrus, and afterward the parchment, was joined together [by the
ancients] to form one sheet, and then rolled upon a staff into a volume
(volumen).
Encyc. Brit.
2. Hence, a collection of printed sheets bound together, whether
containing a single work, or a part of a work, or more than one work; a
book; a tome; especially, that part of an extended work which is bound
up together in one cover; as, a work in four volumes.
An odd volume of a set of books bears not the value of its proportion
to the set.
Franklin.
4. Anything of a rounded or swelling form resembling a roll; a turn; a
convolution; a coil.
So glides some trodden serpent on the grass, And long behind wounded
volume trails.
Dryden.
Undulating billows rolling their silver volumes.
W. Irving.
4. Dimensions; compass; space occupied, as measured by cubic units,
that is, cubic inches, feet, yards, etc.; mass; bulk; as, the volume of
an elephant's body; a volume of gas.