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Intellectual ability, natural or acquired; mental endowment or capacity; skill in accomplishing; a special gift, particularly in business, art, or the like; faculty; a use of the word probably originating in the Scripture parable of the talents (Matt. xxv. 14- 30). He is chiefly to be considered in his three different…

The capacity or contents of a tank or tanks.

amentary guardian of a minor, who may be appointed by the will of a father to act in that capacity until the child becomes of age.

Capacity for religious affections or worship.

The power or capacity of enduring; the act of enduring; endurance. Diogenes, one frosty morning, came into the market place,shaking, to show his tolerance. Bacon.

old renown . . . abused Fanatic Egypt. Milton. Mr. Duke may be mentioned under the double capacity of a poet and a divine. Felton. Under this head may come in the several contests and wars betwixt popes and the secular princes. C. Leslie.

A measure of capacity for liquids, containing about three gallons and a haft, wine measure. It was haft the amphora, and four times the congius.

to leave nothing of; as, to use up the supplies. (b) To exhaust; to tire out; to leave no capacity of force or use in; to overthrow; as, he was used up by fatigue. [Colloq.]

Having the capacity of varying or changing; capable of alternation in any manner; changeable; as, variable winds or seasons; a variable quantity.

The capacity of living after birth. Bouvier.

Active strength or force of body or mind; capacity for exertion, physically, intellectually, or morally; force; energy. The vigor of this arm was never vain. Dryden.

Active quality or power; capacity or power adequate to the production of a given effect; energy; strength; potency; efficacy; as, the virtue of a medicine. Jesus, immediately knowing in himself that virtue had gone out of him, turned him about. Mark v. 30. A man was driven to depend for his security against misundersta…

, in distinction from vis mortua, or dead force; the kinetic energy of a moving body; the capacity of a moving body to do work by reason of its being in motion. See Kinetic energy, in the Note under Energy. The term vis viva is not usually understood to include that part of the kinetic energy of the body which is due t…

ne. Vital air, oxygen gas; -- so called because essential to animal life. [Obs.] -- Vital capacity (Physiol.), the breathing capacity of the lungs; -- expressed by the number of cubic inches of air which can be forcibly exhaled after a full inspiration. -- Vital force. (Biol.) See under Force. The vital forces, accord…

for measuring the volumes of gases or liquids by introducing them into a vessel of known capacity.

Abounding in capacity to warm; giving warmth; as, a warmful garment. [R.] Chapman.

The quality of being wise; knowledge, and the capacity to make due use of it; knowledge of the best ends and the best means; discernment and judgment; discretion; sagacity; skill; dexterity. We speak also not in wise words of man's wisdom, but in the doctrine of the spirit. Wyclif (1 Cor. ii. 13). Behold, the fear of t…

, Unit of work, under Unit, also Foot pound, Horse power, Poundal, and Erg. Energy is the capacity of doing work . . . Work is the transference of energy from one system to another. Clerk Maxwell.

Ability or capacity to write. [R.] Walpole.