faculties

Faculty \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.
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            But know that in the soul
            Are many lesser faculties that serve
            Reason as chief.                      --Milton.
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            What a piece of work is a man ! how noble in reason
            ! how infinite in faculty !           --Shak.
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   2. Special mental endowment; characteristic knack.
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            He had a ready faculty, indeed, of escaping from any
            topic that agitated his too sensitive and nervous
            temperament.                          --Hawthorne.
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   3. Power; prerogative or attribute of office. [R.]
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            This Duncan
            Hath borne his faculties so meek.     --Shak.
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   4. Privilege or permission, granted by favor or indulgence,
      to do a particular thing; authority; license;
      dispensation.
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            The pope . . . granted him a faculty to set him free
            from his promise.                     --Fuller.
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            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.
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   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, etc.
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   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.
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   {Dean of faculty}. See under {Dean}.

   {Faculty of advocates}. (Scot.) See under {Advocate}.

   Syn: Talent; gift; endowment; dexterity; expertness;
        cleverness; readiness; ability; knack.
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