n. [ L. artificium, fr. artifex artificer; ars, artis, art + facere to make: cf. F. artifice. ] 1. A handicraft; a trade; art of making. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Workmanship; a skillfully contrived work. [ 1913 Webster ]

The material universe . . . in the artifice of God, the artifice of the best Mechanist. Cudworth. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Artful or skillful contrivance. [ 1913 Webster ]

His [ Congreve's ] plots were constructed without much artifice. Craik. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Crafty device; an artful, ingenious, or elaborate trick. [ Now the usual meaning. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Those who were conscious of guilt employed numerous artifices for the purpose of averting inquiry. Macaulay. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ Cf. F. artificier, fr. LL. artificiarius. ] 1. An artistic worker; a mechanic or manufacturer; one whose occupation requires skill or knowledge of a particular kind, as a silversmith. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. One who makes or contrives; a deviser, inventor, or framer. “Artificer of fraud.” Milton. [ 1913 Webster ]

The great Artificer of all that moves. Cowper. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A cunning or artful fellow. [ Obs. ] B. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. (Mil.) A military mechanic, as a blacksmith, carpenter, etc.; also, one who prepares the shells, fuses, grenades, etc., in a military laboratory. [ 1913 Webster ]

Syn. -- Artisan; artist. See Artisan. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. artificialis, fr. artificium: cf. F. artificiel. See Artifice. ] 1. Made or contrived by art; produced or modified by human skill and labor, in opposition to natural; as, artificial heat or light, gems, salts, minerals, fountains, flowers. [ 1913 Webster ]

Artificial strife
Lives in these touches, livelier than life. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Feigned; fictitious; assumed; affected; not genuine. “Artificial tears.” Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Artful; cunning; crafty. [ Obs. ] Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. Cultivated; not indigenous; not of spontaneous growth; as, artificial grasses. Gibbon. [ 1913 Webster ]

Artificial arguments (Rhet.), arguments invented by the speaker, in distinction from laws, authorities, and the like, which are called inartificial arguments or proofs. Johnson. --
Artificial classification (Science), an arrangement based on superficial characters, and not expressing the true natural relations species; as, “the artificial system” in botany, which is the same as the Linnæan system. --
Artificial horizon. See under Horizon.
Artificial light, any light other than that which proceeds from the heavenly bodies. --
Artificial lines, lines on a sector or scale, so contrived as to represent the logarithmic sines and tangents, which, by the help of the line of numbers, solve, with tolerable exactness, questions in trigonometry, navigation, etc. --
Artificial numbers, logarithms. --
Artificial person (Law). See under Person. --
Artificial sines,
tangents, etc., the same as logarithms of the natural sines, tangents, etc. Hutton. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality or appearance of being artificial; that which is artificial. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. To render artificial. [ 1913 Webster ]

adv. 1. In an artificial manner; by art, or skill and contrivance, not by nature. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. Ingeniously; skillfully. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

The spider's web, finely and artificially wrought. Tillotson. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Craftily; artfully. [ Obs. ] [ 1913 Webster ]

Sharp dissembled so artificially. Bp. Burnet. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. The quality of being artificial. [ 1913 Webster ]

a. [ L. artificiosus. ] Artificial. [ Obs. ] Johnson. [ 1913 Webster ]