Critic

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /ˈkɹɪt.ɪk/
• Rhymes: -ɪtɪk

Alternative forms

• critick archaic

Origin

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

Full definition of critic

Noun

1. A person who appraises the works of others.
• MacaulayThe opinion of the most skilful critics was, that nothing finer Goldsmith's Traveller had appeared in verse since the fourth book of the Dunciad.
2. A specialist in judging works of art.
3. One who criticizes; a person who finds fault.
• I. WattsWhen an author has many beauties consistent with virtue, piety, and truth, let not little critics exalt themselves, and shower down their ill nature.
4. An opponent.
5. Obsolete form of critique (an act of criticism)
• Alexander PopeMake each day a critic on the last.
6. Obsolete form of critique (the art of criticism)
• John Locke, An Essay Concerning Human Understanding, Chapter 21, page 550And, perhaps, if they were distinctly weighed, and duly considered, they would afford us another sort of logic and critic, than what we have been hitherto acquainted with.

Related terms

• crisis
• criticism
• critical
• critical mass
• criticize
  criticise
• critically
• critique
• criterion

Verb

1. (obsolete, ambitransitive) To criticise.
• A. BrewerNay, if you begin to critic once, we shall never have done.

Anagrams

• citric