critic

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   A person who appraises the works of others.

   Following its publication, the novel received widespread acclaim from literary critics.

2. 2
   noun

   One who criticizes; a person who finds fault.

   When an author has many beauties consistent with virtue, piety, and truth, let not little critics exalt themselves, and shower down their ill nature.

3. 3
   noun

   Obsolete form of critique (“an act of criticism”).

   Make each day a Critick on the last.

4. 4
   noun

   Obsolete form of critique (“the art of criticism”).

   And, 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.

5. 5
   verb

   To criticise.

   1607, Antony Brewer (attributed), Lingua, or the Combat of the Five Senses for Superiority Nay, if you begin to critic once, we shall never have done.

6. 6
   noun

   someone who frequently finds fault or makes harsh and unfair judgments

7. 7
   noun

   anyone who expresses a reasoned judgment of something

8. 8
   noun

   a person who is professionally engaged in the analysis and interpretation of works of art

Etymology

Borrowed from Middle French critique, from Latin criticus, from Ancient Greek κριτικός (kritikós, “of or for judging, able to discern”), from κρίνω (krínō, “to judge”).