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.
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.