\Ve"nal\, a. [L. vena a vein.]
Of or pertaining to veins; venous; as, venal blood. [R.]

\Ve"nal\, a. [L. venalis, from venus sale; akin to Gr. ?
price, Skr. vasna: cf. F. v['e]nal.]
Capable of being bought or obtained for money or other
valuable consideration; made matter of trade or barter; held
for sale; salable; mercenary; purchasable; hireling; as,
venal services. `` Paid court to venal beauties.''
--Macaulay.
      The venal cry and prepared vote of a passive senate.
                                               --Burke.
Syn: Mercenary; hireling; vendible.
Usage: {Venal}, {Mercenary}. One is mercenary who is either
       actually a hireling (as, mercenary soldiers, a
       mercenary judge, etc.), or is governed by a sordid
       love of gain; hence, we speak of mercenary motives, a
       mercenary marriage, etc. Venal goes further, and
       supposes either an actual purchase, or a readiness to
       be purchased, which places a person or thing wholly in
       the power of the purchaser; as, a venal press. Brissot
       played ingeniously on the latter word in his
       celebrated saying, `` My pen is venal that it may not
       be mercenary,'' meaning that he wrote books, and sold
       them to the publishers, in order to avoid the
       necessity of being the hireling of any political
       party.
             Thus needy wits a vile revenue made, And verse
             became a mercenary trade.         --Dryden.
             This verse be thine, my friend, nor thou refuse
             This, from no venal or ungrateful muse. --Pope.