Culture \Cul"ture\ (k?l"t?r; 135), n. [F. culture, L. cultura,
fr. colere to till, cultivate; of uncertain origin. Cf.
Colony.]
1. The act or practice of cultivating, or of preparing the
earth for seed and raising crops by tillage; as, the
culture of the soil.
2. The act of, or any labor or means employed for, training,
disciplining, or refining the moral and intellectual
nature of man; as, the culture of the mind.
If vain our toil We ought to blame the culture, not
the soil. --Pepe.
3. The state of being cultivated; result of cultivation;
physical improvement; enlightenment and discipline
acquired by mental and moral training; civilization;
refinement in manners and taste.
What the Greeks expressed by their paidei`a, the
Romans by their humanitas, we less happily try to
express by the more artificial word culture. --J. C.
Shairp.
The list of all the items of the general life of a
people represents that whole which we call its
culture. --Tylor.
Culture fluid, a fluid in which the germs of microscopic
organisms are made to develop, either for purposes of
study or as a means of modifying their virulence.
Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)
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