sense-rhythm 
fall of accent or quantity of syllables, but, as 
it were, in a pulsation of sense rising and fall- 
ing through the parallel, antithetic, or other- 
wise balanced members of each verse; paral- 
lelism. W. Robertson Smith. 
sense-seta (sens'se"ta), n. A bristle-like ap- 
pendage acting as an organ of sense. A. S. 
Packard. 
sense-skeleton (sens'skel"e-ton), . The sup- 
port or framework of a sense-organ, especially 
when hard or bony. 
sensibility (sen-si-bil'i-ti), n. ; pi. sensibilities 
(-tiz). [< ME. st'iisibiiUee, < OF. sensibilite, F. 
sensibilite = Pr. aensibilitat = Sp. sensibilidad 
= Pg. sensibilidade = It. sensibilita, sensibil- 
ity, < LL. senibilita(t-)s, the sense or meaning 
of words, sensibility, < sensibilis, sensible: see 
sensible,] 1. The state or property of being 
sensible or capable of sensation ; capability of 
sensation. 
Having now been exposed to the cold and the snow 
near an hour and a half, some of the rest began to lose 
their sensibility. Cook, Voyages, i. 4. 
There are accidental fluctuations in our inner sensibility 
which make it impossible to tell just what the least dis- 
cernible increment of the sensation is without taking the 
average of a large number of appreciations. 
W. James, Prin. of Psychology, I. 539. 
2. Mental receptivity or susceptibility in gen- 
eral. 
We call sensibility the receptivity of our soul, or its 
power of receiving representations whenever it is in any- 
wise affected. 
Kant, Critique of Pure Reason (tr. by Max Miiller), p. 51. 
If my granddaughter is stupid, learning will make her 
conceited and insupportable ; if she has talent and xemti- 
bility, she will do as I have done supply by address and 
with sentiment what she does not know. 
The Century, XL. 649. 
3. Specifically, the capacity of exercising or 
being the subject of emotion or feeling in a re- 
stricted sense; capacity for the higher or more 
refined feelings. 
As our tenderness for youth and beauty gives a new and 
Just importance to their fresh and manifold claims, so the 
like sensibility gives welcome to all excellence, has eyes 
and hospitality for merit in corners. Ejnerson, Success. 
Her sensibility to the supreme excitement of music was 
only one form of that passionate sensibility which be- 
longed to her whole nature. 
George Eliot, Mill on the Floss, vi. 6. 
4. In a still narrower sense, peculiar suscep- 
tibility of impression, pleasurable or painful ; 
unusual delicacy or keenness of feeling; quick 
emotion or sympathy; sensitiveness: in this 
sense used frequently in the plural. 
Modesty is a kind of quick and delicate feeling in the 
soul ; it is such an exquisite sensibility as warns a woman 
to shun the first appearance of everything hurtful. 
Addison, Spectator. 
Virtue and taste are built upon the same foundation of 
sensibility, and cannot be disjoined without offering vio- 
lence to both. Goldsmith, Taste. 
The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full of sensibil- 
ity. Burke. 
'Twere better to be born a stone, 
Of ruder shape, and feeling none, 
Than with a tenderness like mine, 
And sensibilities so fine. 
Confer, Poet, Oyster, and Sensitive Plant. 
By sympathetic sensibility is to be understood the pro- 
pensity that a man has to derive pleasure from the happi- 
ness, and pain from the unhappiness, of other sensitive 
beings. Bentham, Principles of Morals, vi. | 20. 
5. The property, as in an instrument, of re- 
sponding quickly to very slight changes of con- 
dition; delicacy; sensitiveness (the better word 
in this use). [Rare.] 
All these instruments have the same defect, that their 
sensibility diminishes as the magnets grow weaker. 
Science, XIII. 294. 
6f. Sensation. 
Philosophres that hyhten Stoyciens that wenden that 
ymages and sensibilities, that is to seyn sensible ymagina- 
cions or elles ymagynacions of sensible thlnges, weeren 
enpreynted into sowles fro bodies withouteforth. 
Chaucer, Boethius, v. meter 4. 
7f. Feeling; appreciation; sense; realization. 
His soul laboured under a sickly sensibility of the mis- 
eries of others. Goldsmith, Vicar, iii. 
Recurrent sensibility. See recurrent. = Syn 3 and 4. 
Taste, Sensibility. See taste. 
sensible (sen'si-bl), a. and n. [Early mod. E. 
also sensible; < ME. sensible, < OF. (and F.) sen- 
sible = Sp. sensibile = Pg. sensivel = It. semi- 
bile, < L. sensibilis, perceptible by the senses, 
having feeling, sensible, < sentire, pp. sensus, 
feel, perceive : see sense 1 , scent."] I. a. 1. Capa- 
ble of affecting the senses ; perceptible through 
the bodily organs. 
Reason, vsing sense, taketh his principles and fyrst sedes 
of thinges sensyblf, and afterwarde by his owne discourse 
and searching of causes encreaseth the same from a seede 
to a tree. R. Eden (First Books on America, ed. Arber, p. 9) 
5494 
Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible 
To feeling as to sight ? Or art thou but 
A dagger of the mind, a false creation'.' 
Shak., Macbeth, ii. 1. 36. 
Return, fair soul, from darkness, and lead mine 
Out of this sensible hell. 
Webster, Duchess of Malfi, iv. 2. 
Wherever Hod will thus manifest himself, there is hea- 
ven, though within the circle of this sensible world. 
Sir T. Browne, Religio Medici, i. 49. 
When we take a simple sensible quality, like light or 
sound, and say that there is now twice or thrice as much 
of it present as there was a moment ago, although we seem 
to mean the same thing as if we were talking of compound 
objects, we really mean something different. 
W. James, Prin. of Psychology, I. 546. 
2. Perceptible to the mind through observation 
and reflection ; appreciable. 
The disgrace was more sensible than the pain. 
Sir W. Temple. 
In the present evil world, it is no wonder that the opera- 
tions of the evil angels are more sensible than of the good 
ones. C. Mather, Mag. Chris., vi. 7. 
No sensible change has taken place during eighty years 
in the coral knolls [of Diego Garcia]. 
Darwin, Coral Reefs, p. 92. 
3. Capable of sensation; having the capacity 
of receiving impressions from external objects; 
endowed with sense or sense-organs; sensitive: 
as, the eye is sensible to light. 
I would your cambric were as sensible as your finger, 
that you might leave pricking it for pity. 
Shak., Cor., i. 3. 96. 
4. Appreciative; amenable (to); influenced or 
capable of being influenced (by). 
If thou wert sensible of courtesy, 
I should not make so dear a show of zeal. 
Shak., 1 Hen. IV., v. 4. 94. 
5. Very liable to impression from without; 
easily affected; highly sensitive. 
With affection wondrous sensible 
He wrung Bassanio's hand. 
Shak., M. of V., ii. 8. 48. 
Of a sensible nostrill. Milton, Areopagitica, p. 29. 
Sunderland, though not very sensible to shame, flinched 
from the infamy of public apostasy. 
Macaulay, Hist Eng., vi. 
6. Perceiving or having perception either by 
the senses or by the intellect; aware; cogni- 
zant; persuaded; conscious: generally with of. 
In doing this I shall be sensible of two things which to 
me will be nothing pleasant. 
Milton, Apology for Smectymnuus. 
I am glad you are so sensible of my attention. 
Sheridan, The Rivals, ii. 1. 
Hastings, it is clear, was not sensible of the danger of 
his position. Macaulay, Warren Hastings. 
7. Capable of responding to very slight changes 
of condition ; sensitive (in this sense the better 
word) : as, a sensible thermometer or balance. 
[Bare.] 8. Possessing or characterized by 
sense, judgment, or reason ; endowed with or 
characterized by good or common sense; in- 
telligent; reasonable; judicious: as, a sensible 
man ; a sensible proposal. 
To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and presently 
a beast! O strange! Shak., Othello, ii. 3. 309. 
No sensible person in Arrowhead village really believed 
in the evil eye. O. W. Holmes, A Mortal Antipathy, iv. 
Sensible caloric*, an old term for sensible heat. Sen- 
sible form, heat, matter. See the nouns. Sensible 
horizon. See horizon, 1. Sensible idea. Same as sen- 
sual idea. See sensual. Sensible note or tone, in mu- 
sic, same as leading tone (which see, under leading^). 
Sensible perspiration, quality, etc. See the nouns. 
= Syn. 1 and 2. Sensible, Perceptible. Literally, these 
words are of about the same meaning and strength, the 
difference depending chiefly upon the connection; for 
example, a sensible difference, a perceptible difference. 
3 and.4. Be Sensible, Be Conscious, etc. See/eeJi. 3 and 7. 
Sensible, Sensitive, Sentient. Sensible in its first meaning 
was passive, but is now quite as often active. As active, 
it is both physical and mental, and is unemphatic: as, 
to be sensible (that is, aware) of heat or cold, of neglect 
or injury. Sensitive means feeling acutely, either in body 
or in mind. A sensible man will school himself not to 
be too sensitive to criticism. Sentient is a physiologically 
descriptive word, indicating the possession or use of the 
sense of feeling: as, the fly is a sentient being. 6. Ob- 
servant, aware, conscious. 8. Sensible, Judicious, discreet, 
sage, sagacious, sound. As compared with judicious, sen- 
sible means possessing common sense, having a sound and 
practical reason, while judicious means discreet in choos- 
ing what to do or advise ; the one applying to the under- 
standing and judgment, the other to the judgment in its 
relation to the will. Serisible, Intelligent, Common-sense. 
As compared with intelligent, sensible means possessed of 
the power to see things in their true light, the light of a 
correct judgment, a- large, sound, roundabout sense, while 
intelligent means possessed of a clear and quick under- 
standing, so as to apprehend an idea promptly and see it 
in its true relations. The relation between cause and ef- 
fect is here so close that intelligent, often seems to mean 
essentially the same as u-eU-informed. Where the sense 
implied in sensible is thought of as peculiarly general or 
level to the experience, conclusions, or notions of the mass 
of men, common-sense is, by a new usage, sometimes em- 
ployed : as, he was a common-sense person : he took a cmn- 
mon-sense view of the matter. All these words apply both 
to the person and to his opinions, words, writings, etc. 
sensitive 
Il.t " 1. Sensation; sensibility. 
Our torments also may in length of time 
Become our elements ; these piercing fires 
As soft as now severe, our temper changed 
Into their temper ; which must needs remove 
The sensible of pain. Milton, P. L., ii. 278. 
2. That which produces sensation ; that which 
impresses itself on the senses ; something per- 
ceptible ; a material substance. 
We may them [brutish manners] read in the creation 
Of this wide Sensible. Dr. II. More, Psychozoia, ii. 35. 
3. That which possesses sensibility or capa- 
bility of feeling; a sensitive being. 
This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even 
to vegetals and sensibles. Burton. 
sensibleness (sen'si-bl-nes), . The character 
or state of being sensible, in any sense of that 
word. 
sensibly (sen'si-bli), adr. In a sensible man- 
ner, in any sense of the word sensible. 
sensifacient (sen-si-fa'shient), a. [< L. sensus, 
sense, + faeien(t-)s, ppr. of facere, make: see 
fact.] Producing sensation ; sensific. [Rare.] 
The epithelium may be said to be receptive, the nerve 
fibers transmissive, and the sensorium sensifacient. 
Huxley, Science and Culture, p. 264. 
sensiferous (sen-sif'e-rus), a. [< L. sensus, 
sense, + ferre = E. bear 1 .] Producing or con- 
veying sensation; acting as an organ of sense. 
The sense-organ, the nerve, and the sensorium, taken 
together, constitute the sensiferaus apparatus. 
Huxley, Science and Culture, p. 267. 
The most important functions of the proboscis are of a 
sensiferous, tactile nature. Encyc. Brit., XVII. 327. 
In speaking of the antennae and palpi, I have called 
them sensiferous organs. Shuckard, British Bees, p. 55. 
sensific (sen-sif'ik), a. [< LL. sensificus, pro- 
ducing sensation, < L. sensus, sense, perception, 
+ facere, make (see -fie)."] Producing, causing, 
or resulting in sensation. Imp. Diet. 
sensificatory (sen-sif 'i-ka-to-ri), a. [< LL. 
sensificator, that which produces sensation, < 
sensificare, endow with sensation, < sensificus, 
producing sensation: see sensific.] Sensifa- 
cient; sensific. Huxley. (Imp. Diet.) 
sensigenous (sen-sij'e-nus), a. [< L. sensus, 
sense, + -genus, < gignere, produce: see -ge- 
nous.] Giving rise to sensation ; sensific ; ori- 
ginating a sensory impulse : noting the initial 
point of a series of molecular movements which 
are ultimately perceived as a sensation. 
And, as respects the ectodermal cells which constitute 
the fundamental part of the organs of the special senses, 
it is becoming clear that the more perfect the sensory ap- 
paratus the more completely do these sensigenous cells take 
on the form of delicate rods or filaments. 
Huxley, Anat. Invert., p. 64. 
sensigerous (sen-sij'e-rus), a. [< L. sensus, 
sense, + gerere, carry.] Sensiferous. 
sensile (sen'sil), a. [< L. sensilis, sensible, < 
sensiis, sense : see sense 1 .] Capable of affecting 
the senses Sensile quality. See quality. 
sension (sen'shon), n. [< ML. sensio(n-), 
thought, lit. perception, < L. sentire, pp. sensus, 
perceive: see sense 1 .] The becoming aware of 
being affected from without in sensation. 
sensism (sen'sizm), n. [< sense 1 + -ism.] In 
philos., same as sensualism, 2. 
sensist (sen'sist), n. [< sense 1 + -4st.] Same 
as sensationalist, 1. 
sensitive (sen'si-tiv), a. and n. [Early mod. E. 
also sensitive; < OF. (and F.) sensitif = Pr, sen- 
sitiu = Sp. Pg. It. sensitive, < ML. "sensitivus, < 
L. sentire, pp. sensus, perceive : see sense 1 .] I. 
a. 1 . Of, pertaining to, or affecting the senses ; 
depending on the senses. 
The sensitive faculty may have a sensitive love of some 
sensitive objects. Hammond. 
All the actions of the sensitive appetite are in painting 
called passions, because the soul is agitated by them, and 
because the body suffers through them and is sensibly 
altered. Dryden, Obs. on Dufresnoy's Art of Painting. 
2. Having sense, sensibility, or feeling ; capa- 
ble of receiving impressions from external ob- 
jects: often extended, figuratively, to various 
inanimate objects. 
Wee haue spoken sufficiently of trees, herbes, and frutes. 
We wyll nowe therefore entreate of thynges sencitiue. 
Peter Martyr (tr. in Eden's First Books on America, ed. 
[Arber, p. 131). 
When in the most sensitive condition, the tendril is ac- 
tively circumnutating, so that it travels over a large area, 
and there is considerable probability that it will come 
into contact with some body around which it can twine. 
Encyc. Brit., XIX. 60. 
3. Of keen sensibility; keenly susceptible of 
external influences or impressions ; easily and 
acutely affected or moved by outward circum- 
stances or impressions : as, a sensitive person, 
