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Art:
–noun

1.	the quality, production, expression, or realm, according to aesthetic principles, of what is beautiful, appealing, or of more than ordinary significance.

2.	the class of objects subject to aesthetic criteria; works of art collectively, as paintings, sculptures, or drawings: a museum of art; an art collection.

3.	a field, genre, or category of art: Dance is an art.

4.	the fine arts collectively, often excluding architecture: art and architecture.

5.	any field using the skills or techniques of art: advertising art; industrial art.

6.	(in printed matter) illustrative or decorative material: Is there any art with the copy for this story?

7.	the principles or methods governing any craft or branch of learning: the art of baking; the art of selling.

8.	the craft or trade using these principles or methods.

9.	skill in conducting any human activity: a master at the art of conversation.

10.	a branch of learning or university study, esp. one of the fine arts or the humanities, as music, philosophy, or literature.

11.	arts, a. (used with a singular verb) the humanities: a college of arts and sciences. b. (used with a plural verb) liberal arts.

12.	skilled workmanship, execution, or agency, as distinguished from nature.

13.	trickery; cunning: glib and devious art.

14.	studied action; artificiality in behavior.

15.	an artifice or artful device: the innumerable arts and wiles of politics.

16.	Archaic. science, learning, or scholarship.

n.

1. Human effort to imitate, supplement, alter, or counteract the work of nature.
2. 1. The conscious production or arrangement of sounds, colors, forms, movements, or other elements in a manner that affects the sense of beauty, specifically the production of the beautiful in a graphic or plastic medium.
   2. The study of these activities.
   3. The product of these activities; human works of beauty considered as a group.
   4. A system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.
   5. A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.
   6. Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
   7. Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice" (Joyce Carol Oates).
   8. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
   9. Artful contrivance; cunning.
3. High quality of conception or execution, as found in works of beauty; aesthetic value.
4. A field or category of art, such as music, ballet, or literature.
5. A nonscientific branch of learning; one of the liberal arts.
6. 1. A system of principles and methods employed in the performance of a set of activities: the art of building.
   2. A trade or craft that applies such a system of principles and methods: the art of the lexicographer.
   3. Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
   4. Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice" (Joyce Carol Oates).
   5. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
   6. Artful contrivance; cunning.
7. 1. Skill that is attained by study, practice, or observation: the art of the baker; the blacksmith's art.
   2. Skill arising from the exercise of intuitive faculties: "Self-criticism is an art not many are qualified to practice" (Joyce Carol Oates).
   3. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
   4. Artful contrivance; cunning.
8. 1. arts Artful devices, stratagems, and tricks.
   2. Artful contrivance; cunning.
9. Printing Illustrative material.

Art

Art\ ([aum]rt), n. [F. art, L. ars, artis, orig., skill in joining or fitting; prob. akin to E. arm, aristocrat, article.]
1. The employment of means to accomplish some desired end; the adaptation of things in the natural world to the uses of life; the application of knowledge or power to practical purposes. Blest with each grace of nature and of art. --Pope.
2. A system of rules serving to facilitate the performance of certain actions; a system of principles and rules for attaining a desired end; method of doing well some special work; -- often contradistinguished from science or speculative principles; as, the art of building or engraving; the art of war; the art of navigation. Science is systematized knowledge . . . Art is knowledge made efficient by skill. --J. F. Genung.
3. The systematic application of knowledge or skill in effecting a desired result. Also, an occupation or business requiring such knowledge or skill. The fishermen can't employ their art with so much success in so troubled a sea. --Addison.
4. The application of skill to the production of the beautiful by imitation or design, or an occupation in which skill is so employed, as in painting and sculpture; one of the fine arts; as, he prefers art to literature.
5. pl. Those branches of learning which are taught in the academical course of colleges; as, master of arts. In fearless youth we tempt the heights of arts. --Pope. Four years spent in the arts (as they are called in colleges) is, perhaps, laying too laborious a foundation. --Goldsmith.
6. Learning; study; applied knowledge, science, or letters. [Archaic] So vast is art, so narrow human wit. --Pope.
7. Skill, dexterity, or the power of performing certain actions, acquired by experience, study, or observation; knack; as, a man has the art of managing his business to advantage.
8. Skillful plan; device. They employed every art to soothe . . . the discontented warriors. --Macaulay.
9. Cunning; artifice; craft. Madam, I swear I use no art at all. --Shak. Animals practice art when opposed to their superiors in strength. --Crabb.
10. The black art; magic. [Obs.] --Shak.

Note: The arts are divided into various classes.
The useful, mechanical, or industrial arts are those in which the hands and body are more concerned than the mind; as in making clothes and utensils. These are called trades.
The fine arts are those which have primarily to do with imagination and taste, and are applied to the production of what is beautiful. They include poetry, music, painting, engraving, sculpture, and architecture; but the term is often confined to painting, sculpture, and architecture.
The liberal arts (artes liberales, the higher arts, which, among the Romans, only freemen were permitted to pursue) were, in the Middle Ages, these seven branches of learning, -- grammar, logic, rhetoric, arithmetic, geometry, music, and astronomy. In modern times the liberal arts include the sciences, philosophy, history, etc., which compose the course of academical or collegiate education. Hence, degrees in the arts; master and bachelor of arts.
In America, literature and the elegant arts must grow up side by side with the coarser plants of daily necessity. --Irving.
Syn: Science; literature; aptitude; readiness; skill; dexterity; adroitness; contrivance; profession; business; trade; calling; cunning; artifice; duplicity. See Science.