Emily Dickinson Lexicon

SENSE-FUL, a. [sens'ful.]

Reasonable; judicious. [Not in use.] – Norris.

SENSE-LESS, a. [sens'less.]

1. Wanting the faculty of perception. The body when dead is senseless; but a limb or other part of the body may be senseless, when the rest of the body enjoys its usual sensibility.
2. Unfeeling; wanting sympathy. The senseless grave feels not your pious sorrows. – Rowe.
3. Unreasonable; foolish; stupid. They would repeat this their senseless perverseness, when it would be too late. – Clarendon.
4. Unreasonable; stupid; acting without sense or judgment. They were a senseless stupid race. – Swift.
5. Contrary to reason or sound judgment: as, to destroy by a senseless fondness the happiness of children.
6. Wanting knowledge; unconscious; with of; as, libertines senseless of any charm in love. – Southern.
7. Wanting sensibility or quick perception. – Peacham.

SENSE-LESS-LY, adv. [sens'lessly.]

In a senseless manner; stupidly; unreasonably; as, a man senselessly arrogant. Locke.

SENSE-LESS-NESS, n. [sens'lessness.]

Unreasonableness; folly; stupidity; absurdity. – Grew.

SENS-I-BIL'I-TY, n. [Fr. sensibilité; from sensible.]

1. Susceptibility of impressions upon the organs of sense; the capacity of feeling or perceiving-the impressions of external objects; applied to animal bodies; as when we say, a frozen limb has lost its sensibility.
2. Acuteness of sensation; applied to the body.
3. Capacity or acuteness of perception; that quality which renders us susceptible of impressions; delicacy of feeling; as, sensibility to pleasure or pain; sensibility to shame or praise; exquisite sensibility.
4. Actual feeling. This adds greatly to my sensibility. – Burke. [This word is often used in this manner for sensation.]
5. It is sometimes used in the plural. His sensibilities seem rather to have been those of patriotism than of wounded pride. – Marshall. Sensibilities unfriendly to happiness may be acquired. – Encyc.
6. Nice perception, so to speak, of a balance; that quality of a balance which renders it movable with the smallest weight, or the quality or state of any instrument that renders it easily affected; as, the sensibility of a balance or of a thermometer. – Lavoisier.

SENS'I-BLE, a. [Fr. and Sp. id.; It. sensibile.]

1. Having the capacity of receiving impressions from external objects; capable of perceiving by the instrumentality of the proper organs. We say, the holy or the flesh is sensible, when it feels the impulse of an external body. It may be more or less sensible. – Darwin.
2. Perceptible by the senses. The light of the moon furnishes no sensible heat. Air is sensible to the touch by its motion. – Arbuthnot.
3. Perceptible or perceived by the mind. The disgrace was more sensible than the pain. – Temple.
4. Perceiving or having perception, either by the mind or the senses. A man can not think at any time, waking or sleeping, without being sensible of it. – Locke.
5. Having moral perception; capable of being affected by moral good or evil. If thou wert sensible of courtesy, / I should not make so great a show of zeal. – Shak.
6. Having acute intellectual feeling; being easily or strongly affected; as, to be sensible of wrong. – Dryden.
7. Perceiving so clearly as to be convinced; satisfied; persuaded. – Boswell. They are now sensible it would have been better to comply than to refuse. – Addison.
8. Intelligent; discerning; as, a sensible man.
9. Movable by a very small weigh: an impulse; as, a sensible balance is necessary to ascertain exact weight. – Lavoisier.
10. Affected by a slight degree of heat or cold; as, a sensible thermometer. – Thomson.
11. Containing good sense or sound reason. He addressed Claudius in the following sensible and noble speech. – Henry. Sensible note, in music, that which constitutes a third major above the dominant, and a semitone beneath the tonic. – Encyc.

SENS'I-BLE, n.

Sensation; also, whatever may be perceived. [Little used.]

SENS'I-BLE-NESS, n.

1. Possibility of being perceived by the senses; as, the sensibleness of odor or sound.
2. Actual perception by the mind or body; as, the sensibleness of an impression on the organs. [Bin cu.]
3. Sensibility; quickness or acuteness of perception; as, the sensibleness of the eye. – Sharp.
4. Susceptibility; capacity of being strongly affected, or actual feeling; consciousness; as, the sensibleness of the soul and sorrow for sin. – Hammond.
5. Intelligence; reasonableness; good sense.
6. Susceptibility of slight impressions. [See Sensible, No. 9, 10.]

SENS'I-BLY, adv.

1. In a manner to be perceived by the senses; perceptibly to the senses; as, pain sensibly increased; motion sensibly accelerated.
2. With perception, either of mind or body. He feels his loss very sensibly.
3. Externally; by affecting the senses. – Hooker.
4. With quick intellectual perception.
5. With intelligence or good sense; judiciously. The man converses very sensibly on all common topics.

SENS-IF'ER-OUS, a.

Producing sense. – Kirby.

SENS-IF'IC, a. [L. sensus and facio.]

Producing sensation. – Good.

SENS'I-TIVE, a. [It. and Sp. sensitivo; Fr. sensitif; L. sensitivus, from sensus, sentio.]

1. Having sense or feeling, or having the capacity of perceiving impressions from external objects; as, sensitive soul; sensitive appetite; sensitive faculty. – Ray. Dryden.
2. Having feelings easily excited.
3. That affects the senses; as, sensitive objects. – Hammond.
4. Pertaining to the senses, or to sensation; depending on sensation; as, sensitive motions; sensitive muscular motions excited by irritation. – Darwin.

SENS'I-TIVE-LY, adv.

In a sensitive manner. – Hammond.

SENS'I-TIVE-NESS, n.

The state of being easily affected by external objects, events or representations.

SENS'I-TIVE-PLANT, n.

A plant of the genus Mimosa, so called from the susceptibility of its leaves and footstalks, which shrink, contract and fall on being slightly touched. – Encyc.

SENS-O'RI-AL, a.

Pertaining to the sensory or sensorium; as, sensorial faculties; sensorial motions or powers. – Darwin.

SENS-O'RI-UM, or SENS'O-RY, n. [from L. sensus, sentio.]

1. The seat of sense and perception, commonly supposed to be seated in some part of the contents of the cranium.
2. Organ of sense; as, double sensories, two eyes, two ears, &c. – Bentley.

SENS'U-AL, a. [It. sensuale; Sp. sensual; Fr. sensuel; from L. sensus.]

1. Pertaining to the senses, as distinct from the mind or soul. Far as creation's ample range extends, / The scale of sensual, mental pow'rs ascends. – Pope.
2. Consisting in sense, or depending on it; as, sensual appetites, hunger, lust, &c.
3. Affecting the senses, or derived from them; as, sensual pleasure or gratification. Hence,
4. In theology, carnal; pertaining to the flesh or body, in opposition to the spirit; not spiritual or holy; evil. – James iii. Jude 19.
5. Devoted to the gratification of sense; given to the indulgence of the appetites; lewd; luxurious. No small part of virtue consists in abstaining from that in which sensual men place their felicity. – Atterbury.

SENS'U-AL-ISM, n.

1. The doctrine that all our ideas, or the operations of the understanding, not only originate in sensation, but are transformed sensations, copies or relics of sensation. – Condillac.
2. A state of subjection to sensual feelings and appetite.

SENS'U-AL-IST, n.

A person given to the indulgence of the appetites or senses; one who places his chief happiness in carnal pleasures. – South.

SENS-U-AL'I-TY, or SENS'U-AL-NESS, n. [It. sensualità; Sp. sensualidad; Fr. sensualité.]

Devotedness to the gratification of the bodily appetites; free indulgence in carnal or sensual pleasures. Those pamper'd animals / That rage in savage sensuality. – Shak. They avoid dress, lest they should have affections tainted by any sensuality. – Addison.

SENS-U-AL-I-ZA'TION, n.

The act of sensualizing; the state of being sensualized.

SENS'U-AL-IZE, v.t.

To make sensual; to subject to the love of sensual pleasure; to debase by carnal gratifications; as, sensualized by pleasure. – Pope. By the neglect of prayer, the thoughts are sensualized. – T. H. Skinner.

SENS'U-AL-IZ-ED, pp.

Made sensual.

SENS'U-AL-IZ-ING, ppr.

Subjecting to the love of sensual pleasure.