sensibility
Definitions
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WordNet 3.6
- n sensibility (physiology) responsiveness to external stimuli; the faculty of sensation "sensitivity to pain"
- n sensibility mental responsiveness and awareness
- n sensibility refined sensitivity to pleasurable or painful impressions "cruelty offended his sensibility"
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Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
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- Sensibility Experience of sensation; actual feeling. "This adds greatly to my sensibility ."
- Sensibility 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.
- Sensibility 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!""The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full of sensibility .""His sensibilities seem rather to have been those of patriotism than of wounded pride."
- Sensibility (Physiol) The quality or state of being sensible, or capable of sensation; capacity to feel or perceive.
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Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
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- n sensibility The state or property of being sensible or capable of sensation; capability of sensation.
- n sensibility Mental receptivity or susceptibility in general.
- n sensibility Specifically, the capacity of exercising or being the subject of emotion or feeling in a restricted sense; capacity for the higher or more refined feelings.
- n sensibility In a still narrower sense, peculiar susceptibility of impression, pleasurable or painful; unusual delicacy or keenness of feeling; quick emotion or sympathy; sensitiveness: in this sense used frequently in the plural.
- n sensibility The property, as in an instrument, of responding quickly to very slight changes of condition; delicacy; sensitiveness (the better word in this use).
- n sensibility Sensation.
- n sensibility Feeling; appreciation; sense; realization.
- n sensibility Synonyms and Taste, Sensibility. See taste.
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Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
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- Sensibility state or quality of being sensible: actual feeling: capacity of feeling: susceptibility: acuteness of feeling: delicacy: mental receptivity
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Quotations
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“In a very ugly and sensible age, the arts borrow, not from life, but from each other.” -
“Beauty itself is but the sensible image of the infinite.” -
“To be scared is sensible, to be comfortable is suicidal.”
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“Who is the most sensible person? The one who finds what is to their own advantage in all that happens to them.” -
“To do exactly as your neighbors do is the only sensible rule.”
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“Courage -- a perfect sensibility of the measure of danger, and a mental willingness to endure it.”
Etymology
Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary
Cf. F. sensibilité, LL. sensibilitas,
Chambers's Twentieth Century Dictionary
Fr.,—L. sensus—sentīre, to feel.
Usage
In literature:
If the general sensibility of the nerves of taste is unduly excited, the function of sensibility is lost for some time.
"The People's Common Sense Medical Adviser in Plain English" by R. V. Pierce
To change his mind in that way is very sensible.
"John Ward, Preacher" by Margaret Deland
If reason acquires strength only by the diminution of sensibility, perhaps it is just for sensibility to be diminished.
"Arthur Mervyn" by Charles Brockden Brown
You are too sensible to think badly of me because I didn't keep things dragging along.
"A Mummer's Tale" by Anatole France
He did not discover great sensibility at the loss of his kingdom.
"The History of England in Three Volumes, Vol.II. From William and Mary to George II." by Tobias Smollett
It may be doubted perhaps whether this realism in love and war is quite so sensible as it looks.
"George Bernard Shaw" by Gilbert K. Chesterton
He has permeated music completely with his impressionistic sensibility.
"Musical Portraits" by Paul Rosenfeld
Nor was Ferdinand less sensible of the bitterness of this separation.
"Henrietta Temple A Love Story" by Benjamin Disraeli
Now let us talk sensibly.
"Standard Selections" by Various
Queen Adelaide was a woman of a deeply affectionate disposition, sensible, sympathetic, and religious.
"The Letters of Queen Victoria, Volume 1 (of 3), 1837-1843)" by Queen Victoria
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In poetry:
These, when no lips severe upbraid,
But counsel rather than control,
In budding boyhood lend their aid
To sensibility of soul.
But counsel rather than control,
In budding boyhood lend their aid
To sensibility of soul.
"The Door Of Humility" by Alfred Austin
Yet tho' a fool I should appear,
A thousand faults revealing;
And thousand cares that wait on thee,
Sweet sacred sensibility,
O let me still be feeling.
A thousand faults revealing;
And thousand cares that wait on thee,
Sweet sacred sensibility,
O let me still be feeling.
"A Fragment" by Elizabeth Bath
Sweet Sensibility! thy kindling ray,
Shall blend its light with Reason's milder beam;
And oft shall Pity's trembling glance convey
To Mis'ry's dark abode a cheering gleam.
Shall blend its light with Reason's milder beam;
And oft shall Pity's trembling glance convey
To Mis'ry's dark abode a cheering gleam.
"To The Author's Brother. On the choice of a Wife in the Year 1789" by Maria Logan
Have we a nation to save? In the first place
Saving ourselves is the sensible plan,--
Surely the spot where there's shooting's the worst place
Where I can stand, says the sweet little man.
Saving ourselves is the sensible plan,--
Surely the spot where there's shooting's the worst place
Where I can stand, says the sweet little man.
"The Sweet Little Man" by Oliver Wendell Holmes
Ther's nobbut one friend 'at a chap can depend on,
If he's made up his mind to succeed in the strife;
A chap's but hissen 'at he can mak a friend on,
Unless he be blest wi' a sensible wife.
If he's made up his mind to succeed in the strife;
A chap's but hissen 'at he can mak a friend on,
Unless he be blest wi' a sensible wife.
"Work Lads!" by John Hartley
The better part, thou didst most sensibly take —
A part, that shall still be unchangeably thine,
(When thou as thy choice the Almighty didst make)
As long as the sun, moon, and planets shall shine.
A part, that shall still be unchangeably thine,
(When thou as thy choice the Almighty didst make)
As long as the sun, moon, and planets shall shine.
"We Must Cleave To Christ, Without Suffering Any Thing To Turn Us Away From Him" by Rees Prichard
In news:
I agree with Bill that Reed is a very sensible pick based on what we know about him.
The Slingshot brings a hipster sensibility to the Foster 'hood.
SoundBite 's Sensible 'Coupons On Demand'.
If you thought that video of the Death Star destroying the Enterprise was "Star Trek" blasphemy, you might want to sit down for this 1984 assault on your "Trek" sensibilities.
But his comments offend our real-world sensibilities.
Short-Heeled Black Pumps – The stewardesses of Pan Am were on their feet all day, so find a sensible, lower heel.
Sensible plan to fight violent crime and drug abuse in Tennessee.
One writer offers his (unpopular but nevertheless sensible) solution to the coming crunch.
Millionaire Surtax A 'Desperate' Act To Conservatives, 'Sensible' To Liberals.
Unfortunately for some people's sensibilities, it is sometimes impossible to accomplish the latter without resorting to the former.
Does sensible technocrat Jeff Bewkes, who spent 28 years rising through the ranks to CEO, have the solution for Time Warner's problems.
A sensible approach to increasing mileage, recovery and adaptation.
It speaks volumes about pop culture's shift in sensibility over two decades that a rap album by Tupac Shakur should be No.
Aaron Vincent Elkaim photo If you don't have the time to go wild and decor the entire house, focus on giving the front door a Christmas sensibility.
You can tell when a presidential campaign has reached a turning point — that moment when the promotional kitsch becomes more sensible and useful than the candidates themselves.
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In science:
It is thus sensible to define a ‘dynamical’ energy by removing this divergent contribution: ˆp0 = p0 − wR/δα′ .
IIA/B, Wound and Wrapped
It is thus sensible to consider this theory even in the absence of D3-branes (i.e., K = 0): it is just the S-dual of the Wound IIB theory without any D-branes.
IIA/B, Wound and Wrapped
Because the simple relation (36) is perfectly well-defined and sensible also in presence of covariant derivatives it can be conjectured that it holds in general.
Generalized heat kernel coefficients
However, SHGs require a specific color state from which to begin the shower—it is the responsibility of the user process to provide a sensible choice for the color flow of a particular event.
Generic User Process Interface for Event Generators
Xi for all sensible values of i, j, k with |i − k | > 1.
The representation theory of the Ariki-Koike and cyclotomic q-Schur algebras
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