Vesta

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. Roman Mythology The goddess of the hearth, worshiped in a temple containing the sacred fire tended by the vestal virgins.
2. n. The brightest of all the asteroids and the fourth to be discovered.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. One of the chief divinities of the ancient Romans, equivalent to the Greek Hestia, one of the twelve great Olympians, the virgin goddess of the hearth, presiding over both the private family altar and the central altar of the city, the tribe, or the race. She was worshiped along with the Penates at every meal, when the family assembled round the altar or hearth, which was in the center of the house. .Æneas was said to have carried the sacred fire (which was her symbol) from Troy, and brought it to Italy, and it was preserved at Rome by the state in the sanctuary of the goddess, which stood in the Forum. To guard this fire from becoming extinguished, it was watched and tended by six stainless virgins, called vestals. The Roman temples of Vesta were circular, preserving the form of the primitive huts of the Latin race, because it was in such a hut that the sacred fire was first tended by the young girls while their parents and brothers were absent in the chase or pasture-ground. See also cuts under hut-urn and monopteron.
2. n. The fourth planetoid, discovered by Olbers, at Bremen, in 1807.
3. n. [lowercase] A wax match which may be ignited by friction.

Wiktionary

1. n. Roman mythology The Roman equivalent of the Greek goddess Hestia.
2. n. A female given name in occasional use.
3. n. astronomy The fourth asteroid discovered.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. (Rom. Myth.) One of the great divinities of the ancient Romans, identical with the Greek Hestia. She was a virgin, and the goddess of the hearth; hence, also, of the fire on it, and the family round it.
2. n. (Astron.) An asteroid, or minor planet, discovered by Olbers in 1807.
3. n. A wax friction match.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. (Roman mythology) goddess of the hearth and its fire whose flame was tended by vestal virgins; counterpart of Greek Hestia
2. n. the brightest asteroid but the fourth to be discovered