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Liberal arts   /lˈɪbərəl ɑrts/   Listen
noun
Art  n.  
1.
The employment of means to accomplish some desired end; the adaptation of things in the natural world to the uses of life; the application of knowledge or power to practical purposes. "Blest with each grace of nature and of art."
2.
A system of rules serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; a system of principles and rules for attaining a desired end; method of doing well some special work; often contradistinguished from science or speculative principles; as, the art of building or engraving; the art of war; the art of navigation. "Science is systematized knowledge... Art is knowledge made efficient by skill."
3.
The systematic application of knowledge or skill in effecting a desired result. Also, an occupation or business requiring such knowledge or skill. "The fishermen can't employ their art with so much success in so troubled a sea."
4.
The application of skill to the production of the beautiful by imitation or design, or an occupation in which skill is so employed, as in painting and sculpture; one of the fine arts; as, he prefers art to literature.
5.
pl. Those branches of learning which are taught in the academical course of colleges; as, master of arts. "In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts." "Four years spent in the arts (as they are called in colleges) is, perhaps, laying too laborious a foundation."
6.
Learning; study; applied knowledge, science, or letters. (Archaic) "So vast is art, so narrow human wit."
7.
Skill, dexterity, or the power of performing certain actions, acquired by experience, study, or observation; knack; as, a man has the art of managing his business to advantage.
8.
Skillful plan; device. "They employed every art to soothe... the discontented warriors."
9.
Cunning; artifice; craft. "Madam, I swear I use no art at all." "Animals practice art when opposed to their superiors in strength."
10.
The black art; magic. (Obs.)
Art and part (Scots Law), share or concern by aiding and abetting a criminal in the perpetration of a crime, whether by advice or by assistance in the execution; complicity. Note: The arts are divided into various classes. The useful arts, The mechanical arts, or The industrial arts are those in which the hands and body are more concerned than the mind; as in making clothes and utensils. These are called trades. The fine arts are those which have primarily to do with imagination and taste, and are applied to the production of what is beautiful. They include poetry, music, painting, engraving, sculpture, and architecture; but the term is often confined to painting, sculpture, and architecture. The liberal arts (artes liberales, the higher arts, which, among the Romans, only freemen were permitted to pursue) were, in the Middle Ages, these seven branches of learning, grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. In modern times the liberal arts include the sciences, philosophy, history, etc., which compose the course of academical or collegiate education. Hence, degrees in the arts; master and bachelor of arts. "In America, literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser plants of daily necessity."
Synonyms: Science; literature; aptitude; readiness; skill; dexterity; adroitness; contrivance; profession; business; trade; calling; cunning; artifice; duplicity. See Science.



adjective
Liberal  adj.  
1.
Free by birth; hence, befitting a freeman or gentleman; refined; noble; independent; free; not servile or mean; as, a liberal ancestry; a liberal spirit; liberal arts or studies. " Liberal education." " A liberal tongue."
2.
Bestowing in a large and noble way, as a freeman; generous; bounteous; open-handed; as, a liberal giver. " Liberal of praise." "Infinitely good, and of his good As liberal and free as infinite."
3.
Bestowed in a large way; hence, more than sufficient; abundant; bountiful; ample; profuse; as, a liberal gift; a liberal discharge of matter or of water. "His wealth doth warrant a liberal dower."
4.
Not strict or rigorous; not confined or restricted to the literal sense; free; as, a liberal translation of a classic, or a liberal construction of law or of language.
5.
Not narrow or contracted in mind; not selfish; enlarged in spirit; catholic.
6.
Free to excess; regardless of law or moral restraint; licentious. " Most like a liberal villain."
7.
Not bound by orthodox tenets or established forms in political or religious philosophy; independent in opinion; not conservative; friendly to great freedom in the constitution or administration of government; having tendency toward democratic or republican, as distinguished from monarchical or aristocratic, forms; as, liberal thinkers; liberal Christians; the Liberal party. "I confess I see nothing liberal in this " order of thoughts," as Hobbes elsewhere expresses it." Note: Liberal has of, sometimes with, before the thing bestowed, in before a word signifying action, and to before a person or object on which anything is bestowed; as, to be liberal of praise or censure; liberal with money; liberal in giving; liberal to the poor.
The liberal arts. See under Art.
Liberal education, education that enlarges and disciplines the mind and makes it master of its own powers, irrespective of the particular business or profession one may follow.
Synonyms: Generous; bountiful; munificent; beneficent; ample; large; profuse; free. Liberal, Generous. Liberal is freeborn, and generous is highborn. The former is opposed to the ordinary feelings of a servile state, and implies largeness of spirit in giving, judging, acting, etc. The latter expresses that nobleness of soul which is peculiarly appropriate to those of high rank, a spirit that goes out of self, and finds its enjoyment in consulting the feelings and happiness of others. Generosity is measured by the extent of the sacrifices it makes; liberality, by the warmth of feeling which it manifests.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Liberal arts" Quotes from Famous Books



... perfidious!—he, whom next thyself, Of all the world I lov'd, and to him put The manage of my state; as at that time Through all the signories it was the first, And Prospero the prime duke, being so reputed In dignity, and for the liberal arts, Without a parallel: those being all my study, The government I cast upon my brother, And to my state grew stranger, being transported And rapt in secret studies. Thy false ...
— The Tempest • William Shakespeare [Craig, Oxford edition]

... actions of a mighty prince should be balanced by the censure of a private man, whose approbation or dislike are equally contemptible in their eyes, when they regard the thrones of sovereigns. But your Majesty has shown, through the whole course of your reign, too great a value for liberal arts to be insensible, that true fame lies only in the hands of learned men, by whom it is to be transmitted to futurity, with marks of honour or reproach to the end of time. The date of human life is too short to recompense the cares which attend the most private condition: therefore it is, ...
— The Tatler, Volume 1, 1899 • George A. Aitken

... resides. You will wonder at my prolixity—in my last I informed you that I was going into the country to transact business for a private gentleman. This gentleman is the Hon. Horatio Walpole, son to the late great Sir Robert Walpole, who is very studious, and an admirer of all the liberal arts and sciences; amongst the rest he admires printing. He has fitted out a complete printing-house at this his country seat, and has done me the favour to make me sole manager and operator (there being no one but myself). All men of genius resorts his house, ...
— The Letters of Horace Walpole, Volume 2 • Horace Walpole

... enough to persons of their profession) on the several skulls they throw up with their spades; but a circumstance which will surprise you is, that this ridiculous incident has been imitated. In the reign of King Charles II., which was that of politeness, and the Golden Age of the liberal arts; Otway, in his Venice Preserved, introduces Antonio the senator, and Naki, his courtesan, in the midst of the horrors of the Marquis of Bedemar's conspiracy. Antonio, the superannuated senator plays, in his mistress's presence, all the apish tricks ...
— Letters on England • Voltaire

... an affair of noble design, to bring together parties really related, to give room for the elective affinities of friendship, to furnish occasion for the comparison of notes to the votaries of science, to extend the privilege of all liberal arts, and promote the offices of a common brotherhood. How much we owe to these little paper messengers for the new treasures of love and learning they have brought! It is hard to tell whose debt to them is greatest, that of the giver, ...
— The Atlantic Monthly, Vol. 12, No. 74, December, 1863 • Various


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