Art (ärt), n. [F. art, L.
ars, artis, orig., skill in joining or fitting; prob. akin to
E. arm, aristocrat, article.] 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.
Pope.
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.
J. F. Genung.
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.
Addison.
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.
Pope.
Four years spent in the arts (as they are called in
colleges) is, perhaps, laying too laborious a foundation.
Goldsmith.
6. Learning; study; applied knowledge, science, or
letters. [Archaic]
So vast is art, so narrow human wit.
Pope.
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.
Macaulay.
9. Cunning; artifice; craft.
Madam, I swear I use no art at all.
Shak.
Animals practice art when opposed to their superiors
in strength.
Crabb.
10. The black art; magic. [Obs.]
Shak.
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.
☞ The arts are divided into various classes. The
useful, mechanical, or 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.
Irving.
Syn. -- Science; literature; aptitude; readiness; skill;
dexterity; adroitness; contrivance; profession; business; trade; calling;
cunning; artifice; duplicity. See Science.