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The quality of being sagacious; quickness or acuteness of sense perceptions; keenness of discernment or penetration with soundness of judgment; shrewdness. Some [brutes] show that nice sagacity of smell. Cowper. Natural sagacity improved by generous education. V. Knox.

er by an external object (stimulus), or by some change in the internal state of the body. Perception is only a special kind of knowledge, and sensation a special kind of feeling. . . . Knowledge and feeling, perception and sensation, though always coexistent, are always in the inverse ratio of each other. Sir W. Hamilt…

Perception by the sensory organs of the body; sensation; sensibility; feeling. In a living creature, though never so great, the sense and the affects of any one part of the body instantly make a transcursion through the whole. Bacon.

e of being perceived by the senses; apprehensible through the bodily organs; hence, also, perceptible to the mind; making an impression upon the sense, reason, or understanding; sensible resistance. Air is sensible to the touch by its motion. Arbuthnot. The disgrace was more sensible than the pain. Sir W. Temple. Any v…

The quality or state of being sensible; sensibility; appreciation; capacity of perception; susceptibility. "The sensibleness of the eye." Sharp. "Sensibleness and sorrow for sin." Hammond. The sensibleness of the divine presence. Hallywell.

In a sensible manner; so as to be perceptible to the senses or to the mind; appreciably; with perception; susceptibly; sensitively. What remains past cure, Bear not too sensibly. Milton.

Pertaining to, consisting in, or affecting, the sense, or bodily organs of perception; relating to, or concerning, the body, in distinction from the spirit. Pleasing and sensual rites and ceremonies. Bacon. Far as creation's ample range extends, The scale of sensual, mental powers ascends. Pope.

Having a faculty, or faculties, of sensation and perception. Specif. (Physiol.), especially sensitive; as, the sentient extremities of nerves, which terminate in the various organs or tissues.

In a sentient or perceptive way.

gment; as, to express one's sentiments on a subject. Sentiments of philosophers about the perception of external objects. Reid. Sentiment, as here and elsewhere employed by Reid in the meaning of opinion (sententia), is not to be imitated. Sir W. Hamilton.

The soul after its separation from the body; -- so called because the ancients it to be perceptible to the sight, though not to the touch; a spirit; a ghost; as, the shades of departed heroes. Swift as thought the flitting shade Thro' air his momentary journey made. Dryden.

Of keen perception; quick to discern or distinguish; having nice discrimination; acute; penetrating; sagacious; clever; as, a sharp eye; sharp sight, hearing, or judgment. Nothing makes men sharper . . . than want. Addison. Many other things belong to the material world, wherein the sharpest philosophers have never yeL…

To render more quick or acute in perception; to make more ready or ingenious. The air . . . sharpened his visual ray To objects distant far. Milton. He that wrestles with us strengthens our nerves and sharpens our skill. Burke.

The act of seeing; perception of objects by the eye; view; as, to gain sight of land. A cloud received him out of their sight. Acts. i. 9.

rational soul; that state of the animal in which there is a lessened acuteness of sensory perception, a confusion of ideas, and a loss of mental control, followed by a more or less unconscious state. "A man that waketh of his sleep." Chaucer. O sleep, thou ape of death. Shak.

To pass from one note to another with no perceptible cassation of sound.

rked by, artful and dexterous secrecy; subtle; as, a sly trick. Envy works in a sly and imperceptible manner. I. Watts.

h; not rough; as, smooth glass; smooth porcelain. Chaucer. The outlines must be smooth, imperceptible to the touch, and even, without eminence or cavities. Dryden.

The act of sniffing; perception by sniffing; that which is taken by sniffing; as, a sniff of air.

The act of snuffing; perception by snuffing; a sniff.