Dictionary definitions
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intellectual
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Intellectual \In`tel*lec"tu*al\ (?; 135), a. [L. intellectualis:
cf. F. intellectuel.]
[1913 Webster]
1. Belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental; as,
intellectual powers, activities, etc.
[1913 Webster]
Logic is to teach us the right use of our reason or
intellectual powers. --I. Watts.
[1913 Webster]
2. Endowed with intellect; having the power of understanding;
having capacity for the higher forms of knowledge or
thought; characterized by intelligence or mental capacity;
as, an intellectual person.
[1913 Webster]
Who would lose,
Though full of pain, this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity?
--Milton.
[1913 Webster]
3. Suitable for exercising the intellect; formed by, and
existing for, the intellect alone; perceived by the
intellect; as, intellectual employments.
[1913 Webster]
4. Relating to the understanding; treating of the mind; as,
intellectual philosophy, sometimes called "mental"
philosophy.
[1913 Webster]
.
From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Intellectual \In`tel*lec"tu*al\, n.
1. The intellect or understanding; mental powers or
faculties.
[1913 Webster]
Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh,
Whose higher intellectual more I shun. --Milton.
[1913 Webster]
I kept her intellectuals in a state of exercise.
--De Quincey.
[1913 Webster]
2. A learned person or one of high intelligence; especially,
one who places greatest value on activities requiring
exercise of the intelligence, such as study, complex forms
of knowledge, literature and aesthetic matters, reflection
and philosophical speculation; a member of the
intelligentsia; as, intellectuals are often apalled at the
inanities that pass for entertainment on television.
[PJC]
