In`tel*lec"tu*al , n.
The intellect or understanding; mental powers or
faculties.
Her husband, for I view far round, not nigh,
Whose higher intellectual more I shun.
Milton. I kept her intellectuals in a state of exercise.
De Quincey.
In`tel*lec"tu*al (?; 135), a. [L. intellectualis:
cf. F. intellectuel.]
1. Belonging to, or performed by, the intellect; mental; as, intellectual
powers, activities, etc.
Logic is to teach us the
right use of our reason
or intellectual
powers.
I. Watts.
2. Endowed with intellect; having the power of
understanding; having capacity for the higher forms of knowledge or thought; characterized by intelligence or mental capacity; as, an intellectual person.
Who would lose,
Though full of pain,
this intellectual being,
Those thoughts that wander through eternity?
Milton.
3. Suitable for exercising the intellect; formed by, and existing for, the intellect alone; perceived
by the intellect; as, intellectual employments.
4. Relating to the understanding;
treating of the mind; as, intellectual philosophy, sometimes
called "mental" philosophy.
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