Sen`si*bil"i*ty (?), n.; pl. Sensibilities (#). [Cf. F. sensibilit'e, LL. sensibilitas.]
1. Physiol.
The quality or state of being sensible, or capable of sensation; capacity to feel or perceive.
2.
The capacity of emotion or feeling, as distinguished from the intellect and the will; peculiar susceptibility of impression, pleasurable or painful; delicacy of feeling; quick emotion or sympathy; as, sensibility to pleasure or pain; sensibility to shame or praise; exquisite sensibility; -- often used in the plural.
"
Sensibilities so fine!"
Cowper.
The true lawgiver ought to have a heart full of sensibility.
Burke.
His sensibilities seem rather to have been those of patriotism than of wounded pride.
Marshall.
3.
Experience of sensation; actual feeling.
This adds greatly to my sensibility.
Burke.
4.
That quality of an instrument which makes it indicate very slight changes of condition; delicacy; as, the sensibility of a balance, or of a thermometer.
<-- usu. sensitivity -->
Syn. -- Taste; susceptibility; feeling. See Taste.
© Webster 1913.