\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.