Source : Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

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.

            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.

Dean \Dean\, n. [OE. dene, deene, OF. deien, dien, F. doyen,
   eldest of a corporation, a dean, L. decanus the chief of ten,
   one set over ten persons, e. g., over soldiers or over monks,
   from decem ten. See {Ten}, and cf. {Decemvir}.]
   1. A dignitary or presiding officer in certain ecclesiastical
      and lay bodies; esp., an ecclesiastical dignitary,
      subordinate to a bishop.

   {Dean of cathedral church}, the chief officer of a chapter;
      he is an ecclesiastical magistrate next in degree to
      bishop, and has immediate charge of the cathedral and its
      estates.

   {Dean of peculiars}, a dean holding a preferment which has
      some peculiarity relative to spiritual superiors and the
      jurisdiction exercised in it. [Eng.]

   {Rural dean}, one having, under the bishop, the especial care
      and inspection of the clergy within certain parishes or
      districts of the diocese.

   2. The collegiate officer in the universities of Oxford and
      Cambridge, England, who, besides other duties, has regard
      to the moral condition of the college. --Shipley.

   3. The head or presiding officer in the faculty of some
      colleges or universities.

   4. A registrar or secretary of the faculty in a department of
      a college, as in a medical, or theological, or scientific
      department. [U.S.]

   5. The chief or senior of a company on occasion of ceremony;
      as, the dean of the diplomatic corps; -- so called by
      courtesy.

   {Cardinal dean}, the senior cardinal bishop of the college of
      cardinals at Rome. --Shipley.

   {Dean and chapter}, the legal corporation and governing body
      of a cathedral. It consists of the dean, who is chief, and
      his canons or prebendaries.

   {Dean of arches}, the lay judge of the court of arches.

   {Dean of faculty}, the president of an incorporation or
      barristers; specifically, the president of the
      incorporation of advocates in Edinburgh.

   {Dean of guild}, a magistrate of Scotch burghs, formerly, and
      still, in some burghs, chosen by the Guildry, whose duty
      is to superintend the erection of new buildings and see
      that they conform to the law.

   {Dean of a monastery}, {Monastic dean}, a monastic superior
      over ten monks.

   {Dean's stall}. See {Decanal stall}, under {Decanal}.