No-bil'i-ty, n.

n. [Lat. nobilitas, It. nobilità, Pr. nobilitat, nobletat, O. Fr. nobilited, Fr. noblesse. See NOBLE.] 1. The quality of being noble; as, (a.) Dignity; greatness; grandeur; elevation; superiority of mind or of quality; commanding excellence; eminence. Though she hated Amphialus, yet the nobility of her courage prevailed over it. Sidney. They thought it great their sovereign to control, And named their pride nobility of soul. Dryden. (b.) Noble birth; patrician dignity; antiquity of family; distinction by rank, station, and title. When I took up Boccace unawares, I fell on the same argument of preferring virtue to nobility of blood and titles, in the story of Sigismunda. Dryden. 2. Those who are noble; the collective body of titled and privileged persons in a state; the aristocratic and patrician class; the peerage; as, the English nobility; French, German, Russian nobility.