[1] : The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48

faculty \fac"ulty\, 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.
      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

   2. 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

   3. power; prerogative or attribute of office. r.
      1913 webster

            this duncan
            hath borne his faculties so meek.     --shak.
      1913 webster

   4. 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

   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.
      1913 webster

   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.
      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
see also:
faculties fact facility dean of faculty dean faculty of advocates 
advocate 

Faculties >> F Words
Faculties, definition of term: Faculties
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