GNU Collaborative International Dictionary of English

last match results

Found one definition

1.       
   Faculty , n.; pl. Faculties . [F. facult, L. facultas, fr. facilis easy (cf. facul easily), fr. fecere to make. See Fact, and cf. Facility.]
    Ability to act or perform, whether inborn or cultivated; capacity for any natural function; especially, an original mental power or capacity for any of the well-known classes of mental activity; psychical or soul capacity; capacity for any of the leading kinds of soul activity, as knowledge, feeling, volition; intellectual endowment or gift; power; as, faculties of the mind or the soul.
   1913 Webster
   But know that in the soul
   Are many lesser faculties that serve
   Reason as chief.
   Milton.
   
   1913 Webster
   What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason ! how infinite in faculty !
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.
   1913 Webster
   He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous temperament.
   Hawthorne.
   
   1913 Webster
   Power; prerogative or attribute of office. [R.]
   1913 Webster
   This Duncan
   Hath borne his faculties so meek.
   Shak.
   
   1913 Webster
   Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence, to do a particular thing; authority; license; dispensation.
   1913 Webster
   The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free from his promise.
   Fuller.
   
   1913 Webster
   It had not only faculty to inspect all bishops' dioceses, but to change what laws and statutes they should think fit to alter among the colleges.
   Evelyn.
   
   1913 Webster
   A body of a men to whom any specific right or privilege is granted; formerly, the graduates in any of the four departments of a university or college (Philosophy, Law, Medicine, or Theology), to whom was granted the right of teaching (profitendi or docendi) in the department in which they had studied; at present, the members of a profession itself; as, the medical faculty; the legal faculty, etc.
   1913 Webster
   (Amer. Colleges) The body of person to whom are intrusted the government and instruction of a college or university, or of one of its departments; the president, professors, and tutors in a college.
   1913 Webster
   Dean of faculty. See under Dean. -- Faculty of advocates. (Scot.) See under Advocate.
   Syn. -- Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness; cleverness; readiness; ability; knack.
   1913 Webster