Facility

3 definitions found

From The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48 [gcide]:

  Facility \Fa*cil"i*ty\ (f[.a]*s[i^]l"[i^]*t[y^]), n.; pl.
     {Facilities} (f[.a]*s[i^]l"[i^]*t[i^]z). [L. facilitas, fr.
     facilis easy: cf. F. facilit['e]. See {Facile}.]
     1. The quality of being easily performed; freedom from
        difficulty; ease; as, the facility of an operation.
        [1913 Webster]


  
              The facility with which government has been
              overturned in France.                 --Burke.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     2. Ease in performance; readiness proceeding from skill or
        use; dexterity; as, practice gives a wonderful facility in
        executing works of art.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     3. Easiness to be persuaded; readiness or compliance; --
        usually in a bad sense; pliancy.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              It is a great error to take facility for good
              nature.                               --L'Estrange.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     4. Easiness of access; complaisance; affability.
        [1913 Webster]
  
              Offers himself to the visits of a friend with
              facility.                             --South.
        [1913 Webster]
  
     5. That which promotes the ease of any action or course of
        conduct; advantage; aid; assistance; -- usually in the
        plural; as, special facilities for study.
  
     Syn: Ease; expertness; readiness; dexterity; complaisance;
          condescension; affability.
  
     Usage: {Facility}, {Expertness}, {Readiness}. These words
            have in common the idea of performing any act with
            ease and promptitude. Facility supposes a natural or
            acquired power of dispatching a task with lightness
            and ease. Expertness is the kind of facility acquired
            by long practice. Readiness marks the promptitude with
            which anything is done. A merchant needs great
            facility in dispatching business; a banker, great
            expertness in casting accounts; both need great
            readiness in passing from one employment to another.
            "The facility which we get of doing things by a custom
            of doing, makes them often pass in us without our
            notice." --Locke. "The army was celebrated for the
            expertness and valor of the soldiers." "A readiness to
            obey the known will of God is the surest means to
            enlighten the mind in respect to duty."
            [1913 Webster]

From WordNet (r) 2.0 [wn]:

  facility
       n 1: a building or place that provides a particular service or is
            used for a particular industry; "the assembly plant is
            an enormous facility" [syn: {installation}]
       2: skillful performance or ability without difficulty; "his
          quick adeptness was a product of good design"; "he was
          famous for his facility as an archer" [syn: {adeptness}, {adroitness},
           {deftness}, {quickness}]
       3: a natural effortlessness; "they conversed with great
          facility"; "a happy readiness of conversation"--Jane
          Austen [syn: {readiness}]
       4: services and space and equipment provided for a particular
          purpose; "catering facilities"; "toilet facilities"
       5: a service that an organization or a piece of equipment
          offers you; "a cell phone with internet facility"

From Moby Thesaurus II by Grady Ward, 1.0 [moby-thes]:

  254 Moby Thesaurus words for "facility":
     WC, abandon, ability, ableness, accommodation, accouterments,
     adaptability, address, adeptness, adequacy, adroitness, advantage,
     agency, agreeability, agreeableness, aid, airmanship, alacrity,
     amenability, amenity, apparatus, appliance, appliances,
     appointments, appurtenance, appurtenances, aptitude, aptness,
     armament, artfulness, artisanship, artistry, atelier, barbershop,
     beauty parlor, beauty shop, bench, bendability, bent, biddability,
     bog, bravura, brightness, brilliance, butcher shop, caliber,
     capability, capableness, capacity, celerity, cleverness, comfort,
     command, company, competence, complex, compliableness, concern,
     control, convenience, conveniences, coordination, corporation,
     craft, craftsmanship, cunning, deftness, desk, dexterity,
     dexterousness, dextrousness, diplomacy, docility, drive,
     ductibility, ductility, duffel, ease, easiness, educability,
     efficacy, efficiency, effortlessness, elasticity, elegance, engine,
     enginery, equipage, equipment, establishment, expertise,
     expertness, extendibility, extensibility, facilities, faculty,
     fictility, finesse, firm, fitness, fitting, fittings, fixture,
     fixtures, flair, flexibility, flexility, flexuousness, flow,
     fluency, formativeness, furnishings, furniture, gear, genius, give,
     grace, gracefulness, grip, handiness, head, horsemanship, house,
     impedimenta, impressionability, ingeniousness, ingenuity,
     installation, installations, institution, intelligence, john, kit,
     know-how, lavatory, leaning, lightness, limberness, litheness,
     loft, loo, machine, machinery, malleability, marksmanship,
     masterfulness, mastership, mastery, materiel, mechanical aid,
     mechanical device, mechanism, moldability, motivation,
     motive power, motor, munition, munitions, organization, outfit,
     paraphernalia, parlor, plant, plasticity, pliability, pliancy,
     plumbing, poetry, poise, power plant, power source,
     practical ability, privy, proficiency, propensity, prowess,
     qualification, quickness, readiness, receptiveness, receptivity,
     resource, resourcefulness, responsiveness, rest room, rig, rigging,
     savoir-faire, savvy, seamanship, sensibility, sensitiveness,
     sequacity, servility, shop, skill, skillfulness, smoothness, speed,
     spontaneity, springiness, stock-in-trade, structure, studio, style,
     submissiveness, subservience, sufficiency, suppleness,
     susceptibility, sweatshop, swiftness, system, tackle, tact,
     tactfulness, talent, teachability, teachableness,
     technical brilliance, technical mastery, technical skill,
     technique, tensileness, tensility, the goods, the stuff, things,
     timing, toilet, tractability, tractility, trainableness, turn,
     unconstraint, utensils, utility, virtuosity, what it takes,
     willingness, willowiness, wit, wizardry, work site, work space,
     workbench, workhouse, working space, workmanship, workplace,
     workroom, workshop, worktable, yieldingness