Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun One who forms and expresses judgments of the merits, faults, value, or truth of a matter.
  • noun One who specializes especially professionally in the evaluation and appreciation of literary or artistic works.
  • noun One who tends to make harsh or carping judgments; a faultfinder.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A person skilled in judging of merit in some particular class of things, especially in literary or artistic works; one who is qualified to discern and distinguish excellences and faults, especially in literature and art; one who writes upon the qualities of such works.
  • noun One who judges captiously or with severity; one who censures or finds fault; a carper.
  • noun The art or science of criticism.
  • noun An act of criticism; a critique.
  • noun Synonyms and Judge, censor, connoisseur; censurer.
  • Of or pertaining to critics or criticism.
  • To criticize; play the critic.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective obsolete Of or pertaining to critics or criticism; critical.
  • noun One skilled in judging of the merits of literary or artistic works; a connoisseur; an adept; hence, one who examines literary or artistic works, etc., and passes judgment upon them; a reviewer.
  • noun One who passes a rigorous or captious judgment; one who censures or finds fault; a harsh examiner or judge; a caviler; a carper.
  • noun obsolete The art of criticism.
  • noun obsolete An act of criticism; a critique.
  • intransitive verb obsolete To criticise; to play the critic.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun A person who appraises the works of others.
  • noun A specialist in judging works of art.
  • noun One who criticizes; a person who finds fault.
  • noun An opponent.
  • verb obsolete, transitive, intransitive To criticise.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun anyone who expresses a reasoned judgment of something
  • noun someone who frequently finds fault or makes harsh and unfair judgments
  • noun a person who is professionally engaged in the analysis and interpretation of works of art

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Latin criticus, from Greek kritikos, able to discern, from kritēs, judge, from krīnein, to separate, judge; see krei- in Indo-European roots.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Latin criticus, from Ancient Greek κριτικός (kritikos, "of or for judging, able to discern"), from κρίνω (krinō, "I judge").

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Examples

  • Though, for our part, we are 'fully convinced that the fcience of criticifm, like mod others, has received great improvement fince the ages of thofe writers; and that a much more accurate teft of poetical excellence might be ap - plied, than the loofe and dubious fentences of the above poet - critic and. critic* poet; yet Mr.W. 's paraphraftical application,

    The Monthly Review 1796

  • The dish might serve as a prime example of the term "critic bait."

    NYT > Home Page By SAM SIFTON 2011

  • # The word critic comes from the Greek κριτικός (kritikós), "able to discern", which in turn derives from the word κριτής (krités), meaning a person who offers reasoned judgment or analysis, value judgment, interpretation, or observation. ...

    UP Pompeii 2009

  • It's always nice when a critic is able to share his god-like wisdom and set poor novelists straight about what they ought to do.

    Narrative Strategies 2009

  • Not because the critic is always “right”, but because they open a door for the rest of us cinephiles to engage in logical debate and think critically about the what we are watching.

    Ebert inspires me: no infantile celeb news over film appreciation! » Scene-Stealers 2008

  • Normally bad reviews are based on hatred (i.e. a critic will hate the swearing in my books so much they launch into an evangelical diatribe!) or jealousy, because the critic is an unpublished SF author who obviously considers their own unpublished work superior.

    INTERVIEW: Andy Remic 2008

  • If using the White House propaganda machinery to try to discredit a critic is a crime, then every administration since John Adams could be considered a criminal enterprise.

    Think Progress » Source to Stephanopoulos: President Bush Directly Involved In Leak Scandal 2005

  • Errr…This a big distinction between criticism, mindless bashing, and mindless bashing in which you call your critic a pedophile.

    Think Progress » Journalist Critical Of Climate Skeptic Michael Crichton Written Into Crichton Novel As Child Rapist 2006

  • He might discover that a critic is a man who has very little use of his senses.

    Runner of the Mountain Tops: The Life of Louis Agassiz 1939

  • John, there are those who are only too easily in "critic" mode.

    Your Wish List 2008

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