Fac"ul*ty (?), n.; pl.
Faculties (#). [F. facult&?;, L.
facultas, fr. facilis easy (cf. facul easily),
fr. fecere to make. See Fact, and cf. Facility.]
1. 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.
But know that in the soul
Are many lesser faculties that serve
Reason as chief.
Milton.
What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason !
how infinite in faculty !
Shak.
2. Special mental endowment; characteristic
knack.
He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping
from any topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous
temperament.
Hawthorne.
3. Power; prerogative or attribute of
office. [R.]
This Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek.
Shak.
4. Privilege or permission, granted by favor
or indulgence, to do a particular thing; authority; license;
dispensation.
The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him
free from his promise.
Fuller.
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.
5. 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, ect.
6. (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.
Dean of faculty. See under Dean.
-- Faculty of advocates. (Scot.) See
under Advocate.
Syn. -- Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness;
cleverness; readiness; ability; knack.
