Crossword Dictionary

What's The Definition Of Sensibility?

\Sen`si*bil"i*ty\, n.; pl. {Sensibilities}. [Cf. F. sensibilit['e], LL. sensibilitas.] 1. (Physiol.) The quality or state of being sensible, or capable of sensation; capacity to feel or perceive. 2. The capacity of emotion or feeling, as distinguished from the intellect and the will; peculiar susceptibility of impression, pleasurable or painful; delicacy of feeling; quick emotion or sympathy; as, sensibility to pleasure or pain; sensibility to shame or praise; exquisite sensibility; -- often used in the plural. ``Sensibilities so fine!'' --Cowper. The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full of sensibility. --Burke. His sensibilities seem rather to have been those of patriotism than of wounded pride. --Marshall. 3. Experience of sensation; actual feeling. This adds greatly to my sensibility. --Burke. 4. That quality of an instrument which makes it indicate very slight changes of condition; delicacy; as, the sensibility of a balance, or of a thermometer. Syn: Taste; susceptibility; feeling. See {Taste}.