facility
(fəˈsɪlɪtɪ)
Forms: 6 facilitye, (facillitie, facylytye, fecility), 6–7 facilitie, 6– facility.
[a. F. facilité, ad. L. facilitāt-em, f. facilis easy: see facile and -ity.]
1. The quality, fact, or condition of being easy or easily performed; freedom from difficulty or impediment, ease; an instance of the same. Often in phr. with (great, much, more) facility.
| 1531 Elyot Gov. i. xxii, An induction..howe children..may be trayned..with a pleasant facilitie. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 383, I cannot see what you may do wyth more facilitie and easinesse. 1597 Hooker Eccl. Pol. v. iii. (1611) 191 The great facilitie of their language. 1649 Roberts Clavis Bibl. ii. 20 That difficulties deterre not from the study of Scripture, there are intermingled some facilities. 1791 Burke App. Whigs (ed. 3) 121 The facility with which government has been overturned in France. 1805 Foster Ess. i. ii. 17 The facility or difficulty of understanding. 1881 Westcott & Hort Grk. N.T. Introd. §29 The relative facilities of the several experimental deductions. |
2. a. in sing. Unimpeded opportunity for doing something. Const. of, for, to with inf. In early use also: † Means, resources (cf. faculty).
| 1519 Four Elements in Hazl. Dodsley I. 27 Ye..have had great facility Strange causes to seek. 1656 Duchess of Newcastle Life Dk. Newcastle (1886) 317 To impoverish my friends, or go beyond the limits or facility of our estate. 1659 B. Harris Parival's Iron Age 172 He found great facility everywhere and very little aversion anywhere. 1730 A. Gordon Maffei's Amphith. 347 The Facility of covering the Spectators with an Awning..was..not one of the least wonderful Things about the Building. 1859 Mill Liberty v. (1865) 60/1 The limitation in number..of beer..houses..exposes all to an inconvenience because there are some by whom the facility would be abused. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. I. 147 The utmost facility is allowed to the upper millstone of adjusting itself. |
b. [So Fr. facilités from 17th c.] In pl. (also every facility): Opportunities, favourable conditions, for the easier performance of any action. spec. (orig. U.S.), the physical means for doing something; freq. with qualifying word, e.g. educational facility, postal facility, retail facilities; also in sing. of a specified amenity, service, etc.
| 1809 Wellington in Gurw. Disp. IV. 357 He wishes to be permitted and to have the facilities given to him to return to France as soon as possible. 1825 M{supc}Culloch Pol. Econ. i. 35 The facilities given to the exportation of goods manufactured at home. 1865 Huxley Lay Serm. ii. (1870) 28 Throw every facility in their way. 1872 R. G McClellan Golden State (1874) 373 There..was but little need of postal facilities. 1876 Patterson in C. M. Davies Unorth. Lond. (ed. 2) 250 The facilities for ordinary traffic are apt to break down. 1920 Travel July 42 To secure better roads, better transportation facilities. 1937 Discovery Nov. p. ci/1 [Film] projection facilities for approved bookings. Ibid., Lunch and tea facilities. 1958 Listener 3 July 10/1 This ‘facility’, or ‘rest room’, as it is also variously called [in the U.S.]. 1962 Gloss. Terms Autom. Data Proc. (B.S.I.) 99 Hold facility,..a means of interrupting the computing action and keeping all variables at the value they had. 1962 F. I. Ordway et al. Basic Astronautics xiii. 554 (caption) Multiaxis spin test inertial facility used by..astronauts. 1967 Times Rev. Industry Aug. 74/2 No one could have predicted..that the completed facility would have the bad luck to run head on into..a metals depression. 1969 Lebende Sprachen XIV. 65/2 Many other ports offer container facilities. Ibid. 97/1 The opening of Britain's National Giro..makes an entirely new banking facility available to the general public. 1971 Oxf. Univ. Gaz. 25 Feb. 708/1 The following decree adds Junior Members to the Committee for Sports Facilities. |
3. a. In action, speech, etc.: Ease, freedom, readiness; aptitude, dexterity.
| 1532 G. Hervet Xenophon's Househ. To Rdr., His swete eloquence, and incredyble facilitie. 1596 Lodge Wits Miserie 57 Lilly, the famous for facility in discourse. 1602 Warner Alb. Eng. Epit. (1612) 382 An ordinary care and skilfull Facilitie in collecting..their descents. 1736 Butler Anal. i. v. Wks. 1874 I. 86 We are capable..of getting a new facility in any kind of action. 1762–71 H. Walpole Vertue's Anecd. Paint. (1786) III. 103 The stranger..performed it with such facility and expedition, that [etc.]. 1841 D'Israeli Amen. Lit. (1867) 475 Spenser composed with great facility. 1875 Jowett Plato (ed. 2) I. 16 Facility in learning is learning quickly. |
b. Of style: Easy-flowing manner, fluency.
| 1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. ii. 126 The elegancy, facility, & golden cadence of poesie. 1700 Dryden Fables Pref. *B 1 Both writ with wonderful Facility and Clearness. 1879 O. W. Holmes Motley xv. 96 He proceeds with an increased facility of style. |
† 4. Easiness of access or converse, affability, condescension, courtesy, kindly feeling. Obs.
| 1550 Veron Godly Saiyngs (1846) 22 Beseching..that ye of your wont goodness & facilitie vouchsafe to accept this my rude labour. 1677 Marvell Let. to Mayor of Hull Wks. I. 287 This slid over, out of their facility to an old servant. 1791 Boswell Johnson 25 Mar. an. 1776, I wondered at this want of..facility of manners. 1793 Smeaton Edystone L. §112 note, Our men were much struck..with the facility of the Portland ladies. |
5. a. Easiness to be led or persuaded to good or bad, readiness of compliance, pliancy. Also rarely const. to with inf. Liability, readiness.
| 1533 More Apol. xxxvi. Wks. 900/2 Of some facylytye of hys owne good nature..easi to beleue som such as haue told him lies. 1607–12 Bacon Ess., Goodness (Arb.) 202 That is but Facilitie, or Softnesse; which taketh an honest Minde Prisoner. 1646 Sir H. Slingsby Diary (1836) 181 To all which y⊇ King yeilds, w{supt}{suph} a facility of nature. 1702 Eng. Theophrast. 165 Licentiating any thing that is coarse and vulgar, out of a foolish facility. 1848 Macaulay Hist. Eng. I. 169 The facility of Charles was such as has perhaps never been found in any man of equal sense. 1875 Manning Mission H. Ghost viii. 216 Those who have in time past been guilty of any sin..have a facility to fall again. |
b. in Scots Law.
| c 1565 Lindesay (Pitscottie) Chron. Scot. (1778) 279 In regard of the Facility of the Earl of Arran. 1861 W. Bell Dict. Law Scot. s.v., As a ground of reduction, facility is quite distinct from incapacity. |
c. transf. Of things: Flexibility. rare.
| 1856 Kane Grinnell Exp. xliii. 401 The swell of the ice..transmitting with pliant facility the advancing wave. |
6. Indolent ease, indifference.
| 1615 T. Adams Two Sonnes 68 They imagine that facilitie, a soft and gentle life is hence waranted. 1791 Boswell Johnson Advt., Those who read them with careless facility. |